Iachawdwriaeth
by Shlane
Summary: News reaches Helen of a series of explosions across Cardiff and the Old City Sanctuary rush to the aid of those who have helped them before, but can they saved everyone this time? Sequel to Survival Instinct and Por Toda La Eternidad.
1. Prolouge

Title: Iachawdwriaeth

Author: Shlane

Rating: T

Summary: News reaches Helen of a series of explosions across Cardiff and the Old City Sanctuary rush to the aid of those who have helped them before, but can they saved everyone this time? Sequel to Survival Instinct and Por Toda La Eternidad.

Disclaimer: (applicable to all subsequent chapters) Not mine, Sanctuary and Torchwood belong to their respective owners (and if they took better care of their creations I wouldn't have to keep writing fix-its now would I?)

AN: At long last the third part in the series, I debated for a long time whether to do Exit Wounds or Children of Earth as the third story eventually a friend of mine convinced me to go with Exit Wounds, obviously this story is going to focus more on the Torchwood team than the previous stories did as I want to focus on the aftermath of Gray's attack (which we never saw in the show) but the Sanctuary cast will still be in most of it. The title means healing or salvation in Welsh (just don't ask me how to pronounce it).

* * *

Prologue

"What can I do for you Declan?" Helen Magnus asked as she picked up the phone on her desk, by her estimation it was almost six thirty at night in London so it must be something vital to have the Head of House calling her.

"I take it you haven't seen the news yet then." Declan said. Even as he continued Helen set one of her side screens to show the BBC world news service. "We've just received reports of several major explosions in Cardiff and Torchwood are not answering when we tried to contact them."

"Bloody hell!" Helen cursed as she saw the extent of the damage that was been reported so far. "Get a damage control team together and down there." She ordered Declan. "Something's happened to Torchwood if they aren't answering." She told him as she used her computer to text everyone in her team with orders to report to her office. "Either they're overwhelmed or incapacitated, prep your infirmary to receive an unknown number of casualties."

"What about UNIT?" Declan asked.

"Negative." Helen ordered. "Torchwood does not trust them at present." She left off the part where she didn't either.

"It's going to take us time to get to Cardiff." Declan warned her just as first Ashley and then John teleported into her office.

"We'll already be there." Helen assured him. "You're back up."

"Understood." Declan told her and hung up.

"Mom what's going on?" Ashley asked but Helen held up her hand indicating that she should wait a moment. Meanwhile Helen was pulling up a live satellite feed for Cardiff which showed there were several buildings on fire, likely a result of the explosions that Declan and the news had mentioned.

Within a minute Will, Kate, Henry and the Big Guy all arrived. Helen stood and walked around her desk so she was standing facing them "With in the last five minutes there has been a series of massive explosions in Cardiff." She briefed them. Ashley gasped and John stepped behind her, placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "As of now Torchwood are not responding to any attempts at contact, we have to assume that they are down for one reason or another."

"What's the plan boss?" Henry asked, like all the others he had become friends with the Torchwood Team, especially their quite Asian tech Toshiko who was probably the only person he knew who could out-tech him. Except for Tesla but the arrogant former vampire didn't count in Henry's book.

"We go in full force." Helen told them. "Heavy weapons, our first aim is to establish contact with whatever members of Torchwood we can find. Second, we aim to secure the city, London will be sending a team to assist but they are hours away at best. And finally we find and neutralise the cause of the explosions." She looked around her team and then turned to Henry. "Get whatever equipment you might need, the rest of you weapons and full comms. Main Entrance Hall in ten minutes."

They all departed except for the Big Guy. "I think it might be best of you co-ordinated from here old friend." She told him. "Cardiff is used to the unusual but it might be better not to push them too hard while their city is exploding."

"Then let me have your chair and you get ready to go." The Big Guy told her as he slid into her chair without waiting for an invitation.

" "

In less than five minutes Helen, John, Ashley and Kate were in the main entrance hall. "We'll go now." Helen decided. "John you can come back for Will and Henry." John nodded. "Let's go then, just outside the main entrance to their base." John took her hand while Ashley put her hand on Kate's arm and they teleported to Cardiff.

They arrived outside of the entrance to the Hub, it was dark and there was an air of menace and panic to the city. Ashley and Kate drew their weapons immediately and split up to canvas the immediate area for any potential threats while John remained at Helen's side to protect her. Knowing the other three would take care of any danger Helen keyed her comm to the frequency that she and Jack had set up months earlier.

They had both known that trouble was coming for their respective organisations and had formed and mutual support pact. As security they were the only ones that knew about it.

"Attention, this is Helen Magus of the Sanctuary Global Network calling all members of Torchwood, please respond."

"Magnus!" It was Gwen Cooper who answered first and a few moments later Helen also had answers from Ianto, Tosh and Owen. Every member of Torchwood checked in except their leader Jack. Helen used the override on her comm and set all of her team's comm to the same frequency so that they could hear everything.

"Gwen, I'm in Cardiff and the rest of my staff will be within a few minutes, what is the situation?" Helen asked, keeping her voice calm in an effort to keep everyone else calm. "John get Will and Henry." She added to her lover who immediately teleported away, Ashley and Kate had found no danger nearby and made their way back to Helen but remained alert.

"I'm at the Police Headquarters, all the most senior officers are dead and we're calling in all officers to try and keep the situation under control." Gwen briefed her. "Owen is at St Helen's hospital, they've lost all power, including the backup generators. Ianto and Tosh are at the Central Server Building trying to restore power to the nuclear power station."

John reappeared with Will and Henry, the latter of whom had a fair sized bag of equipment with him.

Gwen was continuing with her briefing over the comm. "Jack is missing, there was a man calling himself John Hart, he's responsible for all this. Last we know Jack was with him."

"Where do you need us Gwen?" Helen asked, this wasn't her operation or her city which meant she was prepared to take a step back and let Gwen lead. It wasn't easy though, especially when the younger woman sounded so overwhelmed, but it was situations like this that proved the merit of a person.

"Err." Gwen took a deep breath. "Okay, I could use Will's help here, organising the police and Ianto and Tosh could probably use Henry's help."

"And I would really appreciate another pair of hands Magnus." Owen put in.

"Right." Helen agreed. "We have two teleports so we will be with you shortly." She turned to John and Ashley. "You have maps of the city?"

"And I've been here enough to know my way around." Ashley assured her mother.

Helen nodded. "Take yourself, Will and Kate to help Gwen with the police." The three of them nodded and Ashley put a hand on each before teleporting. "John, you and I will go to the hospital and help Owen once we drop Henry off with Tosh and Ianto." She took a deep breath. "Let's go."

* * *

AN: Chapters will go up as and when (I've lost all concept for a posting schedule, sorry) but I hope to have most or all of the story up before my field course in mid-June.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Gwen didn't think she had ever been so grateful to hear from anyone as she was when she heard Helen Magnus's voice over the comms. They weren't alone, they had help, Gwen thought with relief. And with fifteen explosions all across Cardiff Gwen knew they would need all the help they could get.

"What's going on?" Rhys asked her having heard her briefing the Sanctuary team but not able to hear the other side of the conversation.

"We've got some help coming." Gwen told him. "Not a lot but it's another team that Jack's friendly with, they're from America."

"The same lot you went off with a couple of months back? Ashley's people?" Rhys asked, he'd met Ashley when her mother had sent her to Cardiff for a little holiday while she ran a sting operation on a rogue telepath. Gwen nodded. "So when are they getting here?" He asked just as Ashley teleported in with Will and Kate.

"Now." Ashley said while Rhys just stared at them in shock.

Gwen grinned, mostly in relief. "This is my husband Rhys." She quickly introduced him then noticed Andy coming round the corner and was quickly grateful he'd missed the Sanctuary team's appearance. She waved him over. "And with is my old police partner Andy. Guys this is Ashley, Will and Kate, they're another team similar to Torchwood and they're here to help." She added the last part mainly for Andy's benefit.

"Hey, good to see you again Ashley." Rhys said in greeting. "Nice to finally meet the rest of you."

"Same." Will said. "Shame about the circumstances." He turned his attention to Gwen. "This is your city, your people, tell us what to do."

"Alright." Gwen said. "I've calling in every available officer and we have radio links to the other stations so the call has gone out. I'm going to order door to door welfare checks, Ashley, Kate can you work with Andy to sort out patrol routes, make sure the entire city is covered, co-ordinate with the local stations as needed." Gwen added the last part to Andy.

Andy nodded. "You better come with me then." He told the two young women who followed him towards a nearby room that had a large detailed map of the city.

"Will, I need you profiling skills, I need to know what's going on here." She said and he nodded, finally Gwen turned to her husband. "Rhys, I need you to stay here, talk to the officers as they come in, let them know what's going on and tell them to get ready. Let me know when most of them are here."

"I will do." Rhys was just happy that he was able to help and that Gwen was including him rather than trying to push him away.

Gwen pulled Will into an office that had once belonged to murdered senior officers. Once the door was closed she laid out everything that had happened and everything that she knew about 'John Hart'. When she finished Will was shaking his head.

"There's something not right about this." He said. "Something doesn't fit, the first time he came here John Hart wanted something and he lied and manipulated to get it. This time he kidnaps your boss and blows up a good portion of Cardiff, plus the stuff with the Rift and the Weevils." Will shook his head firmly. "No, there's something missing, this is too extreme for a selfish person like Hart."

"What do you mean?"

"This is the type of action you'd expect from someone who has nothing left to loose and no care for anyone or anything." Will frowned. "This is a level of chaos and destruction, presumably just to get at one man doesn't make sense unless there is intense hatred behind it."

"Jack and John have a messed up relationship but I wouldn't say he hated him," Gwen said. "If fact I think it's the opposite, I think John might still love Jack."

"Not even jealousy would account for this." Will said.

There was a knock on the door and Rhys stuck his head around. "Just about everyone's here." He told her.

"Alright." Gwen stood and took a deep breath. "Get everyone together I'll be out in a second."

"You're doing fine Gwen." Will reassured her once they were alone again. "Just keep it going."

Gwen nodded and went back to entrance hall where all the officers were gathered. Someone, and she was prepared to bet it was her husband, had found her a box to stand on so that she could see over the assembled group and be seen by all the officers.

"All right listen up." Gwen said calling all the attention in the room to her. "This was a targeted attack, designed to cause maximum panic. Usual emergency procedures won't cover what's happened here. This is where we find out how good we really are. Cover the whole city, knock on doors, check on people, tell people that they are safe and that it is being dealt with. Get out there and do your jobs."

"Bloody impressive, man." Rhys muttered to Andy.

"She is that, yeah." Andy agreed. "Lucky sod."

Rhys smirked with the look of a man who knew just how lucky he was, fortunately Gwen wasn't looking his way. "Andy and the women with him have your assignments, and remember; keep calm and we will get through this." She dismissed them and walked over to Rhys. "How'd I do?"

"Great." Rhys told her. Gwen took heart from his words, though since he was her husband he was required to always be supportive of her, she was sure that was in the vows somewhere.

" "

After quickly dropping Henry off with Tosh and Ianto, who were still trying to get the nuclear servers back online, John took himself and Helen to the hospital. "Thank fucking God." Owen said as soon as he saw them. "Half the so-called doctors and nurses have no idea how to manage medicine without electricity."

"I think I remember it." Helen said. "Where do you need me?" Helen asked.

"Paediatrics." Owen said quickly. "I've got the intensive care wards." He turned to John. "There's a team of porters and the hospital electrician trying to rig up a generator of some sort, can you check on that and see if they have any sort of estimate for at least the critical stuff."

John nodded and the three of them separated to their various jobs.

" "

"Try it now." Henry said from where he was laid on his back under a tangle of wires.

"Still nothing." Tosh reported. "Ianto?"

"Nothing here too, sorry."

"We need to re-start the Turnmill servers." Tosh reminded the two men, glaring at the screen in front of her as if it was deliberately defying her every attempt to make it work.

"What happens if we can't?" Henry asked.

"Then the reactor goes into meltdown." Tosh almost added 'and we all die' but she resisted the temptation to be so mellow dramatic, that was Owen's specialty. After all when the medic was confronted with the end of the world he'd suggested sex. Remembering that incident brought a small smile to Tosh's face but Ianto's next words wiped it away.

"Then I'm going up there."

"What?" Tosh thought, hoped, she'd miss heard him then looked at the resolve on his face and realised she hadn't. "Ianto!" Henry climbed out from under the bank of computers and looked at the Welshman.

"Look, if we can't fix the remote servers, there must be something I can do on-site to prevent nuclear meltdown." Ianto reasoned.

"That sounds like suicide." Henry pointed out but Tosh had to admit that Ianto had a point, the controls on site would probably still be working and there should be manual overrides even if the computers were damaged.

"Are we gonna discuss it, or are we gonna do it?" Ianto asked, obviously having noticed the resignation on Tosh's face.

"OK, but I'm going with you, Henry?" She asked turning to the Sanctuary tech, this wasn't his city or his battle there was no reason to expect him to risk his life.

"I did bug Magnus for more field work." He grabbed his bag from the floor and slinging it on his back. "Let's go."

They'd hardly made it out of the building when Tosh's portably Rift detector went off. "Damn." She cursed as she pulled it out and studied the screen.

"What is it?" Ianto asked.

"A Rift disturbance at the Hub, it mirrors then one from when Jack disappeared." She told him.

"Do you think it's him?" Ianto asked, neither of the techs missed the hope in his voice.

"I don't know." Tosh frowned. "We've got to get the power plant taken care of but I don't like the idea of not investigating this."

"Call Gwen." Henry suggested. "She'd got Ashley, Will and Kate with her, I'm sure they can spare a couple to check it out, especially since Ashley can get in and out quickly." Tosh nodded her agreement and touched her comm to call Gwen.

" "

Ashley wondered where Gwen was; the former police officer had sent the officers out on their assigned patrols and then seemed to have disappeared. Finally, after looking for a few minutes, Ashley finally found her sitting on the floor behind the booking desk. She eased herself down on the floor next to the Welshwoman. "You're as worried about Jack as I am, aren't you?"

Gwen nodded. "Hart never seemed completely stable but Will thinks there's someone else behind the scenes, pulling his strings and that this is all that other person's master plan." Gwen told her. "Hart claimed to have Jack's younger brother, I can't help but think everything it tied into that but I can't see how."

"You think everything was done to get to Jack?" Ashley asked.

"There was a Rift surge and Jack is gone, Hart took him somewhere just as the explosions went off, they were a diversion to keep us occupied so we couldn't even try to help."

"Jack is strong." Ashley said. "He's been through a lot and he's impossible to kill. He'll find a way back to us Gwen, I know he will." Gwen wasn't sure which of them the younger woman was trying to convince.

Before they could say anything else Rhys walked by and spotted them. "Is this the sulking corner then?" He asked.

"Still no word from Jack." Gwen explained.

Rhys tried to comfort her. "Hey, it's gonna be fine."

Gwen shook her head. "What if it's not? What if this is how it all ends? I can't do this, Rhys. I'm not up to it."

"Rubbish." Rhys argued, deciding that she obviously needed a boost to her confidence, after all Jack did have pretty big boots for his wife to try and fill. "Those coppers are out there now, because of you. Even if you don't believe in yourself, they did. And I do. You're a bloody hero, Gwen. So you keep going, cos we need you."

Gwen gave him a weak smile. "Will you marry me again?" She asked.

Rhys was grateful that a comm call interrupted them because while he had been able to find the right thing to say to keep his wife going he wasn't so sure what he could say to help the American girl. When they'd met before Ashley Magnus had been a kick arse and ask questions later kind of girl, he wasn't sure how to comfort such a young woman. A young woman who was also no doubt worried about her god-father.

"Gwen." Came Tosh's call over the comms, it brought both Gwen and Ashley back to attention and reminded them that the time for self-pity came after the crisis was over. "I've got a rift alert from inside the Hub, mirroring the pattern from earlier when Jack disappeared."

"D'you think it could be him?" Gwen asked hopefully.

"I can't check it out, we've got to get the Turnmill servers back online."

"Tosh, I can't leave the police station." Gwen told her.

"Yes, you can." Rhys told her firmly. "If they need you. We'll be fine."

"Are you sure?" She asked hesitantly.

"He's right." Ashley said. "Will and Kate can stay here and help Rhys while we see what's happening at the Hub."

Rhys nodded. "I'll see you when it's all over." Gwen gave him a slight smile. "Go!" He told her firmly.

Ashley touched her own comm. "Will, Kate, I've got to check something out, stay here and help Rhys, I'll be back soon."

"Good luck." Will told her.

"Be careful." Was Kate's reply. Then Ashley put her hand on Gwen's arm and teleported them both to the Hub.

As soon as they appeared both drew they're weapons, Ashley immediately slipped into the shadows while Gwen canvased the main area of the Hub.

"Well you got here a little faster than I was expecting." Gwen spun around and pointed her gun straight between John Heart's eyes.

"On your knees!" She ordered him but he didn't listen.

"Honestly." John mock complained. "It's just sex, sex, sex with you people!"

Ashley stepped from the shadows behind Hart. She pushed her gun into the small of his back while her other hand held her dagger against his throat. "I think Gwen said on your knees." Hart was suddenly a lot more cooperative and sank to his knees, slowly so as to allow Ashley to lower her knife and not slice his throat open. "Hands behind your head." Ashley snapped and Hart complained. "Now I need a really good reason not to kill you." She told him as she moved so she was standing in front of him with her gun still trained on him. "And I need it now or I'm going to start slicing things off and you will probably miss them."

"I know where Jack is." John said, his hands still on his head.

"You're lying." Gwen snapped.

"He's buried alive, somewhere beneath this city." He told them. "I came back to help you."

Gwen protested. "You bombed this city!"

Ashley had frozen in shock when Hart told them he had buried Jack, alive. "You bastard!" She took a step towards him and seemed unable to decide which to start with, her gun or knife.

"Hold on a second and listen to me!" John pressed, lowering his hands from his head and holding them out to ward her off. "You have to believe me. It's Gray, Jack's brother, that's been doing all this."

"Don't talk rubbish." Gwen said at exactly the same moment as Ashley said. "Bullshit."

"He placed a bomb on me, molecularly bonded the detonator to my skin, I had to do what he wanted." Hart explained and then rose to his feet and held out his arm to the two women, pulling back his sleeve so that they could clearly see his wrist. The device, which on casual inspection looked to be similar to Jack's wrist strap, closer inspection proved that it was attached to John's skin, practically imbedded. "Look! He forced me to bury Jack and then he freed me, he told me I could go anywhere I wanted. I could've run, but I chose to come back here."

"Why should we trust you?" Gwen demanded.

Hart took a couple of deep breaths and then stared to explain. "They were separated as children, Gray was abducted. When I found him he was chained to the ruins of a city on the Bedlam Outlands. Surrounded by corpses. He was the only one left. The creatures had long since gone. Dunno how long he'd been there. He thought I was the rescuing hero." He paused for a moment. "So, it took me too long to realise he'd learned terrible things watching those creatures. He let me trust him." Suddenly he cried out in pain, grabbing at his arm where the wrist strap was bonded to his skin. "Argh! The molecules are unbonding. Just like he promised."

Hart was clearly determined to remove the wrist strap, he undid the buckle that would usually have kept it in place bit it was still attached to at least the top few layers of skin because he had to peel them away when he removed the device. It left an ugly bloody area around his wrist where the skin was missing, leaving the underlying tissue exposed. It was also, judging by the amount of noise he made, excruciatingly painful. "Aargh! Oh, God!" Finally he removed the device completely. "See? Free man. Apparently." He took a couple of deep breaths and then said seriously. "I didn't have to come back here. I could've run."

Gwen looked at Ashley, her expression asking the blond woman for her opinion. For her part Ashley was inclined to believe Hart. While he wasn't a good guy by any stretch of the imagination he did seem to have his own set of ethics and morals. He was not unlike Tesla in that respect, except that Hart did actually seem to care if someone he cared about was hurt while he was saving his own ass. She nodded to Gwen who took a step closer and pointed the gun directly in John's face.

"You find Jack, I'll let you live." She promised him. "But you'd better be quick."

"Fine." He agreed solemnly and then turned his attention to his now detached wrist strap. HE fiddled with the controls for a moment, what he was going was clear a second later over the comms. "Toshiko, I need you to run a trace for an etheric particle signal NME transmitting at 200 beta-cycles."

"Gwen, where are you?" Tosh sounded worried. "What's he doing? Where's Jack?" She asked.

It was Hart who answered her. "Trace that signal, we'll find him."

"It's OK, Tosh." Gwen reassured her. "We've got him covered. Just do as he says."'

Tosh evidently did as she was asked because she replied a moment later. "No signals even vaguely resembling that."

"Uh, no, there must be." Hart protested. "That transmitter was guaranteed for five millennia through three ecological permalayers , it has to still be transmitting, if not, we'll never find him. He'll be buried, forever."

Before anyone could say anything to that, or shoot Hart as Ashley was considering, there was a painfully high pitched noise filling the Hub.

They all clasped their hands over their ears to try and ward off the terrible noise, Ashley was careful not to drop either of her weapons and noticed that Gwen didn't drop her gun either.

"What the hell is that?" Gwen demanded.

The noise dropped to a slightly more bearable level and Gwen and Ashley both glanced towards the monitor, although it was across the room they could still make out the figures of Weevils moving freely around the Hub. "Oh, there's weevils loose in the lower corridors."

Gwen pulled Hart towards Tosh's work station and then pushed him to one side. "Stay there, stay there. Keep an eye on him." She added to Ashley who had followed them over. Gwen looked at the monitors and saw just how many Weevils they were going to be dealing with. "Oh, my God, what's going on, how did they get out?"

"It's Gray." Hart said, also looking at the monitor that Gwen was, Ashley too looked over their shoulder and didn't like what she saw. It reminded her of when the Keepers of the Dead had invaded her mom's Sanctuary looking for the Morrigan. "He must be here in the city," Hart continued. "He said he was gonna take Jack's life, destroy it from the inside out. A weevil wake-up call could be just the beginning."

A moment later Ianto called them over the comms. "Owen, Gwen, can you hear me? The streets are flooded with weevils, they came out of nowhere. There's no chance we'll get to the nuclear power station in time."

Owen replied obviously giving instructions to those around him while answering his team. "Manual life support, get them round the hospital. If you need anything else talk to Doctor Magnus. Ianto, leave it to me, Magnus and Druitt have things under control here. I can get there."

"How?" Ianto asked.

"King of the Weevils, remember?" Gwen could almost hear a sarcastic grin in Owen's voice.

"King of the Weevils?" Ashley asked.

Gwen shrugged. "Weevils seem to obey Owen, no idea why but they won't attack him normally and I doubt even Gray could change that." She added with a look at Hart. "They bow down to him."

" "

At the Police Headquarters Will and Kate were following what was happening at the Hub over their comms and passing on the relevant information to Rhys. "Weevils on the loose." Kate said glancing over that Will. "I take it that's not a good thing."

"No." Will said, when the Torchwood team had found Ashley in their basement the Sanctuary team, bar Kate, had visited the Hub to see her and Will had joined the Torchwood team for a Weevil hunt. It had been an experience and that had been a lone creature, what they were facing now were hoards. "Radio everyone who's on patrol." He told Andy. "Tell them to get in doors along with anyone else they can find. Do not engage. We need to seal the building and make sure those Weevils who killed the senior officers are still contained."

It turned out they weren't, they were fighting to get out of the cell. Rhys, Andy, Will and Kate immediately put their weight against the door along with a couple of other officers, all trying to force the door closed against. "Push, will you!" Rhys shouted at them. "Have none of you ever been in a scrum!"

"What the hell's a scrum?" Kate shouted back as she pushed hard against the door. Finally, with one last hard shove, they were able to get the door closed and the bolt slid home, keeping the Weevils contained.

"Bloody hell, how many were there?" Rhys said, mainly to himself it seemed. "It's like Fort Apache the Bronx in here." He continued as he walked away, Will and Kate following him.

"Apart from the fact that the surrounding forces are savage aliens and we could all die, it's almost exactly the same, yeah." Andy muttered. "Thanks for that." The Weevil's growled through the door and Andy decided to take himself elsewhere.

* * *

AN: Thanks to everyone who added this story to their faves and alerts, now is there any chance of a review or two?


	3. Chapter 2

AN: Here's chapter 2, will the presence of the Sanctuary team be enough to save Tosh and Owen from the fates they had in canon?

* * *

Chapter 2

Ashley raided the autopsy bay for first aid equipment, she then proved that all the time spend in her mom's infirmary had taught her something by bandaging Hart's wrist. She also proved she wasn't as caring as her mother since she didn't offer him any painkillers and she wasn't exactly gentle as she tied the bandage off.

Meanwhile Gwen had rerun the scan that Tosh had already run; they hoped that if there was anything to find then the more powerful Hub computers would help. That wasn't proving to be the case. "I am telling you I have run every scan possible, there is no signal traceable."

"Then try it again, it's got to be there." Hart insisted then he noticed that Gwen wasn't looking at him and neither was Ashley. "Oi, I'm talking to you."

Both women continued to ignore him and mentally curse themselves since the Weevils that had suddenly appeared were now between them and the weapons they had discarded so they had their hands free for first aid and computers.

They were surrounded on all sides and ended up back to back, trying to keep all the Weevils in someone's line of sight and not giving them the chance to get behind them.

"You know you've got a real pest problem around here." Hart said as the Weevils growled at them.

Ashley reached and grabbed Gwen's wrist in one hand and Hart's in the other, and debated where the best place for them to make a strategic retreat to. Even her teleporting wouldn't let her reach her gun since one of the Weevils was very close and would get her before she could shoot it.

Before she could decide where to go there were a series of gun shots. They looked to see Ianto, Tosh and Henry. Ianto and Tosh had their guns out and were the ones who had fired. Henry, who wasn't as well trained, was behind them.

"Oh, God, I'm so pleased to see you!" Gwen said with real relief.

Ianto seemed not to have heard her, or even noticed the rest of them were there. He just made his way towards Hart, his gun pointed at the other man and the look on his face said that he was going to use it. He was going to kill Hart.

Gwen got between then, forcing Ianto's gun arm up and away from Hart as the man in question back away, his arms raised defensively. Ashley helped Gwen hold the irate Welshman because as much as she wanted to shoot Hart herself she knew that he might still be useful for getting her god-father back.

"Don't start." Hart said. "I'll make things right, Eye Candy." Ashley felt Ianto tense and thought that Hart might not be all that smart after all if he was further irritating Ianto when the Welshman was already prepared to kill him in cold blood.

"Then start by getting those Weevils down the vaults before they recover." Tosh told them as she moved around her workstation. "It takes more than a bullet to stop them."

Henry stepped closer to one of the Weevils and it growled and tried to crawl away from him. "Dude what the hell?" He asked.

"I think it knows what you are." Ashley suggested. "And I think it's scared of you."

"Cool." Henry said and took another step towards it and the Weevil tried to get further away.

"Stop playing around." Gwen told him. "And actually help with these will you?" Ashley shrugged and grabbed the legs of the one Ianto was dealing with while Henry helped Gwen with hers since it seemed the most out of it and it didn't respond to him. They left Hart to deal with number three on his own.

While they made their way down to holding cells Gwen took the opportunity to fill Ianto and Henry in on what was going on with Hart. They reached the main point of it just as they reached the cells. "You did what?!" Ianto demanded of Hart when Gwen told him about Jack been buried, alive, somewhere under Cardiff.

"Ianto!" Gwen was just glad she was between the two men as they hauled the Weevils into their cells, she'd like to think that Ashley would stop Ianto killing Hart but she knew there was an equally good chance that the young American would help. So for now she needed to keep Ianto's mind on the situation at hand and not what Hart had done to his lover.

"I didn't have a choice!" Hart defended but Ashley wasn't having any of there.

"There's always a choice!" She shouted at him and she should know, she'd been prepared to die rather than hurt her mother.

Gwen was thinking that maybe she should find a way to get Hart out of the immediate vicinity of Ianto and Ashley since he obviously didn't have a high enough IQ to keep his mouth shut. "Okay, can we just get these Weevils into the cells please!"

"If we don't find him, I'll kill you." Ianto promised as they pulled the Weevils into the cells. "Very slowly."

Before anyone could say anything else the doors slammed shut behind them. "Whoa!" Gwen said. "What's happening? Tosh? Tosh!" There was no answer. "Ianto, my comms are dead." She would have been more panicked but Ashley could teleport out of the cell in a heartbeat unless someone put up an EM field.

"Gwen?" John's voice called her attention to him and the man standing in front of that cell.

"I let you go." He said to Hart. Gwen and Henry moved as close to the glass as they could so they could see what was going on and in their cell Ianto and Ashley did the same. The young man's faint resemblance to Jack and the way he was talking was enough to strongly suggest that this was "I gave you one trip, you could have gone anywhere."

"Question of honour." He replied but Gray just scoffed at that and started to walk away.

Gwen tried to reason with Gray but it was no good, all he said was: "His life's mine now."

Ianto was nearly so civilised but Gray ignored his shouted demands completely. "What've you done with him?!" Ianto shouted again at the retreating back of Gray but he still didn't get a response.

"Lovely guy." Henry muttered. "Hey Ash, any chance of getting us out of here?"

Ashley grinned and grabbed Ianto's hand, teleporting them back into the corridor they had started out in. "Oh that was not pleasant."

"Will would agree with you." Ashley told him. "Some people just seem more sensitive to jumps." She let go of Ianto and walked to the door that led to Gwen and Henry's cell. She took a quick look through the spy hole then teleported in, grabbed their arms and jumped back to the corridor. She did the same with Hart's cell just he held up his hand.

"Give me a minute." He was fiddling with a box that Ashley presumed he had pulled from his pocket. "Ah, got it!" Another very loud noise, though on a slightly different pitch to the one that had called the Weevils out and sent them on the rampage. Ashley grabbed Hart's hand and teleported them into the hallway where the other three had their hands over their ears, Henry seemed to be particularly suffering, his hearing more sensitive than a human's. "Sorry about that." John shouted over the noise as they appeared.

"Turn it down!" Gwen snapped and when he did so she continued. "What have you done?"

"Recall signal." Hart sounded smug. "Time for all the pets to return home."

"Why didn't you do that while they had us surrounded up stairs?" Ashley demanded.

"Well sweetheart it takes a few minutes to rewire and we really didn't seem to have those few minutes up there." Hart told her and Ashley wished for a knife or her gun, something to wipe the smirk off his face.

"We can complain about this later." Gwen said. "I hate to point this out but Gray is running round the Hub and we have no way to warn Tosh." That pulled everyone's thoughts back to where they should be, they exchanged a singled look and headed for the stairs back to the main Hub. They were nearly there when an unearthly banging started echoing through the Hub.

"What the hell is that?" Ashley asked.

"Wasn't me." Hart said quickly. But by then Gwen had reached the main level of the Hub and spotted Tosh on the floor near her work station and a growing pool of blood.

"Oh my God!" Gwen shouted. "Tosh!"

Everyone ran to the fallen technician, she had one hand pressed to her gunshot wound to her stomach. Ashley grabbed the first aid kit she'd been using on Hart and started doing the best she could for Tosh. "Are the comms working? I need mom here, this is more than I can deal with." She told them.

Ianto tapped his comm. "Magnus, we need you at the Hub, ASAP, Tosh is down, gunshot wound to the stomach."

"Bloody hell!" Was the reply, "We'll be there in a few moments."

"Ianto!" A second voice overlaid Magnus. It was Owen. "What the hell is going on there? Where' s Tosh? She's not answering me."

"She's been shot." Ianto told him quickly.

Owen cursed quickly and fluently. "She was supposed to be talking me though dealing with this reactor overload, she was rerouting power from the auxiliary source back to the station and then use that to restore the coolant system."

"Henry." Ianto called to the Sanctuary Tech as he tried to get the computer system at Tosh's work station on but that clearly wasn't happening and Ianto suspected that Gray had trashed it. "Tosh was helping Owen deal with the nuclear power plant."

"I need some computer but I think I can manage that." Henry told him. Ianto grabbed Tosh's hand held system and pulled Henry to the Autopsy bay where the projector and wall would do just fine in place of a computer screen.

At that moment Helen and John Druitt appeared in the Hub. Helen immediately rushed to where her daughter was working on Tosh with the help of Gwen. "What have we got?"

"Gunshot wound to the stomach." Ashley said. "Bullet is still in and there's serious blood loss."

"Alright Toshiko stay with me." Helen told her as she checked the injury.

"Owen, the nuclear plant, we need to restore the coolant." Tosh said as she tried to focus on the faces of the people around her.

"Henry and Ianto are working on it." Gwen told her. "We need to get you fixed up Tosh."

"No, have to help Owen." Tosh insisted and actually tried to sit up.

"No." Helen said firmly. "If we don't sort this out then you aren't going to be around to care about nuclear meltdown." She looked up at Gwen. "I need to get her into surgery now or she's not going to make it."

"I don't think that a good idea here." Gwen said. "Gray is still on the loose."

Helen wondered who Gray was but decided that she would worry about it later. "We'll take her to London, their infirmary is fully prepped for casualties, since we didn't know what your situation was." She looked at her family. "John stay here, they might need you, you have more experience with teleporting under difficult conditions." She looked to her daughter. "Ashley I need you to take us to London, their infirmary please."

"Helen?!" They all turned to see Jack Harkness who had just run into the room. He was looking rather the worst for wear. His clothes were dirt stained and ragged around the edges.

"No time." Helen shouted across the Hub to him. "We need to get Tosh out of here." She said and glanced at Ashley who nodded and placed a hand on her mother's arm and one on Tosh's shoulder then, with a quick smile for her god-father, she teleported them away.

As soon as they were gone Gwen went and hugged Jack. "Oh thank God!"

Ianto had run up the stairs from the autopsy bay at the sound of Jack's voice. "I thought we'd lost you." He said as he made his way over.

Jack shifted Gwen so she was against one side and pulled Ianto against him as soon as the other man was within arm's reach. He pressed a kiss to Ianto's hair. "Never!" He promised.

"Quite a queue for the hugs." Hart commented.

Ianto pulled away from Jack and moved behind his shoulder, keeping his eyes on Hart. As far as Ianto was concerned it didn't matter is Gray had been controlling things, John Hart had been the one to bury Jack under Cardiff for a very long time given what Hart had said about the guarantee on the transmitter and Jack been buried for ever. Ianto's hand drifted to the gun still strapped to his hip, if Hart made one wrong mood he would blow his brains out.

"Always has been, always will be." Jack replied. "Nice use of the ring."

"Thank you. Least I could do. Listen, Gray's in the Hub."

"I know." Jack said shortly. "It's done." No one wanted to ask exactly what Jack had done to his younger brother.

"Oh fuck!" Henry's curse brought everyone's attention to the autopsy bay and Jack ran over followed by everyone else. It hadn't escaped his attention that his doctor was missing and once he saw what was on the projector in the autopsy bay he had a terrible feeling that he knew where Owen was.

"What's going on?" He demanded looking down at Henry.

"The good news is that we managed to stop the nuclear meltdown." Henry swallowed. "The bad news is that Owen is stuck in there in exactly the place the irradiated coolant is about to flood."

Gwen's hand flew to her mouth as she looked at the screen in horror, knowing that the blinking curser was her trapped friend and one time lover. "Oh shit!"

Jack and Ianto also looked at the screen in horror as well while Henry looked rather guilty, as though it was his fault this was happening to Owen though anyone could tell him the Hart was guiltier than he could ever be. Only John Druitt kept his composure.

"Henry I need GPS coordinates for the power plant." He said. "Mr Jones I need blueprints of the layout, preferably to scale."

Jack whirled around to face him. "There is no way you are going in there." He said taking a step towards him. "Teleporting and radiation do not mix."

"You can't stop me Harkness, I need that information gentlemen." But he didn't need to remind them, Henry had already pulled up what he needed and Ianto was using Tosh's remote access device to call up the blueprints of the power station. Blueprints that Torchwood probably shouldn't have but then again, thanks to Tosh, Torchwood had an awful lot of things they probably shouldn't have.

"Here." Ianto said handing it to John. "Good luck." Henry was talking to Owen over the comm and it sounded like he was doing his best to calm the understandably panicked medic, telling him that Druitt was going to come and get him out of there.

John took the device from Ianto and after a quick glance at the location that Henry had pulled up on the screen, he teleported away.

"Who the hell are you hanging out with?" Hart asked.

"That would be John Druitt." Ianto told him with a glare.

"Jack the freaking Ripper?" Hart asked incredulously. "No way." He turned to look at Jack. "You really know Jack the Ripper?"

"He's not the Ripper anymore." Jack told him absently but the majority of his attention was focused on the screen and praying that John got to Owen in time.

" "

John Druitt was grateful that Ashley was not around to volunteer for this insanity because Jack had been right; turning yourself into pure energy when there was high levels of background radiation was not generally a good idea. While it certainly wasn't as dangerous as trying to teleport in an EM field the higher than normal levels of radiation would make the jumps tricky, especially the re-materialisation part.

Rescuing Doctor Harper would also be difficult since he couldn't just jump in and out again. He didn't have the proper coordinates for the room that he was in, nor did he have the placement of the equipment within the room. Without that information he would risk rematerializing inside a wall or ever a table. Usually he could avoid furniture but the background radiation would make that harder than normal.

Instead he made his way thought the power plant as quickly as he could on foot, only teleporting whenever he came across a sealed door. Even then he only jumped far enough to land just on the other side of the door.

Finally he reached the room that Owen was sealed in and jumped inside. "Oh thank the fuck." Owen had been pacing back and forth in short frantic moments. Clearly he had been worried that John wouldn't get to him in time. "He's here." He said into his comm. "And we're out of here, London?"

John nodded. "This trip will not have been good for me." He placed his hand on Owen's arm. "But I should have one more jump in me." He teleported them both out.

" "

"And not a second too soon." Henry said watching the screen as it showed the coolant venting at the power plant was beginning mere seconds after Owen's last comm call. Gwen breathed a sigh of relief as did Jack and Ianto while Henry flopped down in the autopsy table, looking exhausted. Only Hart seemed relatively unaffected by everything.

Jack took a deep breath. "Right then. Henry, not that I'm not very pleased to see you but what the hell are you doing here?"

"Declan had a report of explosions in Cardiff." Henry explained. "When no one answered the phone the boss got had us all come over here and help. Will and Kate are with her husband." He pointed at Gwen. "Over at the Police HQ."

"What happened to Tosh?"

"She was shot." Ianto told him. "Single gunshot to the stomach, I'm assuming it was Gray."

"Declan and his team are on their way to help with the clean-up." Henry told them, he pulled out one of his own toys and check the screen. "They should be here within the next hour."

"Gwen can you contact Will and Kate to see what needs doing, and let Rhys know you're alright." Jack ordered. "Henry get the Hub systems back on line as best you can and then see about getting the city back on line. John stay out of the way and trouble, or better yet get started on the calculations you need to be gone." Jack added before turning to Ianto. "Ianto, find a way to contact London and see how Tosh and Owen are doing, then please put some coffee on."

"Of course Jack." Ianto didn't bother asking what Jack was going to do, he just assumed that it was something to do with Gray. And he was right, Jack intended to freeze Gray in the morgue, he simply couldn't bring himself to kill his little brother even as he acknowledged that this angry young man who had caused so much suffering wasn't the little boy he had known and that killing him might be the kinder thing to do.

Hart apparently agreed with him on that because he followed him as he went to retrieve Gray's unconscious body and then helped ot carry him up to the autopsy bay. He stood back and allowed Jack to prepare Gray for the Cryo-unit alone but he couldn't help but ask. "Are you sure this is a good idea Jack? Maybe killing him would be the release he needs."

"I can't." Jack said simply.

"You didn't struggle when I buried you." Hart said. "Like, you were allowing it."

"It was my penance." Jack said sadly.

Hart stepped closer and said softly. "It's not your fault." Jack didn't reply, instead he activated the cryo-unit and then took a deep breath before turning back to John.

"Need help with those rift predictions?"

"Lot of this planet I haven't seen. You like it so much, thought I might take a look. Maybe see you around." Hart kissed Jack's cheek and started for the stairs then he turned back. "I just have to ask, Jack the Ripper, seriously?"

"Yes." Jack said.

"Next you'll be telling me the brunette was his wife and you know their blond hellion of a daughter." Hart laughed and then noticed that Jack didn't. "Seriously? Man, they're like famous they're still talking about them back in our time and here you are hanging out with the legends themselves."

"Legends are a lot more painful up close." Jack told him. "I haven't told them what the future holds, at least not the parts I can remember."

"You never were much good at history." Hart grinned. "And you copied off me to pass the course."

"And I paid you for it."

"Oh yes you did." Hart grinned fondly at the memory. "Too bad Eye-Candy will object if we go there again, at least I assume he will."

"He will." Jack told him. "And I wasn't offering. But for old time's sake I'll give you some free advice; stay away from the Sanctuary and especially Ashley."

"Hey I like to live dangerously." Hart held his hands up in mock protest.

"She's my god-daughter."

"But not that dangerously." Hart said quickly. "I'll see you around."

Ianto passed Hart as he was leaving. "Is he leaving?" Ianto asked when he reached Jack. Jack nodded. "Good." Ianto said. "How are you doing?"

"I've been better Ianto, I've been a lot better." Jack sighed. "But it would all have been a lot worse without the Sanctuary joining us."

"It might still be worse." Ianto told him grimly. "I've got a report from Doctor Magnus in London."

"Tosh?"

"Is stable for the moment, she's not out of the woods yet but she survived surgery." Ianto sighed. "The problem is Owen." That surprised Jack, since Owen was already dead he hadn't expected there was much more that could harm him. Ianto obviously saw what Jack was thinking. "He received a massive dose of radiation, as did Druitt but he's responding well to the medication Magnus has given him, medication that Owen can't metabolise."

* * *

AN: Please leave me a REVIEW and let me know what you think? and any guesses you might have about what's going to happen? (Except for a certain someone who knows what happens)


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"The honest truth is that I don't know what's going to happen to you Owen." Helen said looking the other doctor straight in the eye. They were in the London Sanctuary's infirmary where Helen had run every test and scan that she could on Owen. "The radiation is affecting you but I can't even begin to guess how it will interact with the energy keeping you as you are." Helen didn't want to say alive because things that were alive generally had heartbeats. "The bottom line is that you cannot heal so anything the radiation does is permanent."

"So it's terminal." Owen said looking over the file that Helen had been showing him with his test results.

"For lack of anything better to call it." Helen agreed. "You aren't radioactive, at least not enough to consider you a risk to others but there's nothing more I can do for you Owen." She closed the folder she had been reading from. "I'm sorry."

"Yeah, well I should have died months ago anyway." Owen said trying to see the best of it. "Any idea how this is going to play out?"

"Death from radiation exposure is usually a result of organ failure which you can have so." Helen trailed off.

"So I get to watch my body slowly decompose until the energy keeping me going finally fades." Owen swallowed, a totally unnecessary response but he could help it. "I need to ask you for something Doctor Magnus."

"Whatever you need Owen." Helen promised him.

"I want to stay in the Sanctuary." He told her. "I don't want my team to see this happen, I can't do that to them, especially Tosh."

"You love her, don't you?" Helen said softly.

"We were supposed to go on this date but then I died and this." He waved his hand to indicate his general walking dead condition. "And in the end I guess we just missed each other." Owen said sadly. "Can I go sit with her for a while?"

"She's still unconscious." Helen reminded him. "But yes."

It took Owen a few minutes to find Tosh's room again. She looked so pale and still, Owen thought as he entered the room and pulled a chair up beside her bed, she was hooked up to half a dozen different monitors all of which showed her vital signs were steady but weak. She'd lost a lot of blood, some during surgery to remove the bullet and the rest, Owen assumed, was staining the floor of the Hub.

He sat down and took her hand in his, her skin felt nearly as cool as he knew his was. "Tosh, come on girl." He said softly to her. "You're not going to let one little bullet get the better of you are you? Not after everything we've been through." He smiled slightly. "You remember that time you have to cover for me with the space pig? I was hungover and unreachable and you went all the way to London and pretended to be a doctor, you even met the Doctor didn't you? Jack's Doctor."

Owen squeezed her hand. "God I'd be crying right now if I could, don't tell the Tea Boy, I'll never hear the end of it." Owen took a deep breath. "But I need you to be okay Tosh because I'm not going to be but I can't bear the idea of this world not having you in it babe, I don't want to leave knowing that you won't still be alive." He reached out and brushed a strand of her hair away from her face. "Please wake up Toshiko, please."

*" * "*

Owen didn't realise it but he had an audience in the form of Helen Magnus. Silently she moved away from the door, allowing Owen his privacy, and made her way back to the main lab. She wanted to be able to offer Owen some sort of hope, he'd helped save both John and Ashley but try as she might she couldn't think of anything she could do to save him. She couldn't bring a dead body back to life.

A sudden thought hit her like a bolt of lightning. She couldn't bring a dead body back to life but she knew someone who had. Nikola Tesla, she had seen for herself that his experiments in trying to revive the vampire race had resulted in him bringing the dead back to life. The question was could it help Owen?

His first experiment had brought a corpse back to life but as his mindless slave, the second had involved genetic modification of rich teenage drug addicts. Modifications which should have activated slowly changing them over a period of decades but had instead been activated when they were suddenly killed, transforming them completely.

It could work. She thought, it certainly wasn't going to do him any more harm than he was already suffering. And they would be able to use the de-vamper to make him human again afterwards, because Sanguine Vampiris was one Abnormal race Helen would like to see remain extinct.

However Helen knew that she would need more help to pull this particular miracle off. She would need Nikola Tesla.

But first she would have to discuss it with Owen because if he didn't want to go through with the procedure, assuming they could create one, then it would be pointless to track down Tesla. She quickly turned around and headed back to Tosh's room. The Asian technician was still unconscious and Owen was still sitting where Helen had last seen him, holding Tosh's hand.

"Owen?" Helen said, he turned around to look at her. "Come back to the main lab, I have an idea to discuss with you."

She led him back to the lab and then pulled up her reports from both incidents on her computer and let him read over them. "I see where you're going with this." Owen told her. "If it works you'd be bringing me back, alive, as a vampire and then presumably using Tesla's 'de-vamper'." He sniggered a little over the name, even the second time it was still funny.

"I'd prefer the vampires remain extinct, I have no desire to be enslaved."

"No I get that." Owen agreed. "I've met Tesla."

Helen laughed. "He was like that before we took the Source Blood, though John would tell you he's become worse as the years have gone by."

"So, if I decide to go ahead with this, and you come up with a procedure that could work, what would the worst case scenario be?" Owen asked seriously.

"It might do nothing at all." Helen admitted. "Or it could disrupt the energy that is currently keeping you going."

"And then I'm really dead." Owen pointed out and then took a deep breath. "Okay so the worst is that it disrupts the energy but we already know that is fading, I've known that since Jack brought me back and there's a good chance that this radiation is going to do me in quicker. So as a worst case I don't have to watch my own body decompose and it will be over quickly."

He glanced back towards Tosh's room and Helen realised that he was thinking what it would mean to her and his friends. They wouldn't have to suffer through his drawn out second death.

"I think I like that worst case Magnus." Owen told her honestly.

"There's another possibility." Helen warned him. "You could end up stuck as a vampire."

"Better a vampire than a zombie." Owen said practically. "At least a vampire can do fun things like eat and drink."

"Yes." Helen agreed. "Though getting drunk is another matter."

"Magnus believe me when I tell you that right now I would be perfectly happy if I could just enjoy a coffee, even the Tesco value stuff Ianto threatens us with when he's in a bad mood."

Helen put her hand on his shoulder. "Then I'll have Ashley find Tesla and we'll get started." She told him. "Go back and sit with Toshiko, it wouldn't be good for her to wake up alone in a strange place after everything that's happened." Owen nodded and the two of them separated.

Helen headed to the guest room that Declan had assigned her and John. She had treated him for the radiation exposure but between the medication and his accelerated healing he'd be fine with some rest.

Entering their room, Helen took a few moments to admire John's sleeping figure. She'd always liked watching him sleep, he looked so peaceful. And young, the years seemed to leave him when he slept.

She sat down on the bed next to him and stroked her fingers over his brow.

"Helen." He said groggily as she woke him.

"Hello." She said with a smile.

"You're violating your own orders love." He told her. "You ordered me to rest remember? And neither of us will rest with you here."

"Don't get your hopes up John I'm here to ask you something." She told him. "I'm trying to find a way to help Owen."

John pushed himself up until he was in a sitting position, and Helen had to force herself to ignore his naked chest, just the sight of John without his shirt was enough to bring out the teenage girl she thought she had banished forever. "Tell me more."

"I think that I can use Tesla's research." She told him. "Twice his work has brought the dead back as vampires and he has a way to make them human again."

"You want to use that to save Owen." John guessed. "Which means that you want to know where Tesla is? He guessed.

"Yes." Helen told him. "I know you John, Tesla put Ashley and I in danger in Columbia you wouldn't have just let that pass without doing something to him."

Helen knew him too well, John thought, the Cabal lab and Source Blood altered creatures had upset Ashley greatly and she'd had nightmares for several nights afterwards. And Helen was right, he had taken his revenge on Tesla but it wasn't anything that would have caused permanent harm to the former vampire. After all he was once a friend, and for some reason Helen was rather attached to him.

"I returned him to Columbia." John told her. "After I had dealt with him suitably."

"You didn't do any permanent damage to him did you John?" Helen asked.

"No my love." John told her sincerely. "I did nothing to him that caused injury, when I left him he was no more blooded or bruised than when he left the caves."

"Good." Helen said. "Now get some rest, I'll send Ashley out to track Tesla down, I want some help coming up with this treatment for Owen and you have to admit that he does know the most about his own work."

"Yes." John agreed as he lay back down in bed. "Just tell Ashley to watch herself, Columbia is a dangerous place."

"And our daughter is a dangerous young woman." Helen reminded him as she stood and made her way to the door. "She'll be fine."

*" * "*

Ashley was actually eager for something to do, hunting and tracking Abnormals was her specialty and she was happy to have something to do. Declan and his team were working with Torchwood and the Cardiff police to get the city back under control. Will was working with Gwen to coordinate everything, Henry, with help from Ianto, had taken on Tosh's work and was spending his time getting communications back up and running along with the central servers. And in what spare time the two men had they were trying to sort out the damage done to the Hub. Kate had been called back home to help the Big Guy run the Sanctuary and Jack was working with UNIT to ensure that the nuclear plant was secure.

In short Ashley had been left with little to do since even the Weevils of Cardiff seemed to have decided to take a few days off. Thus she was very happy to teleport herself to Columbia and go Tesla-hunting.

Unfortunately it turned out not to be all that difficult. Tesla was in the capital, checked into an expensive suite at the premier hotel. Ashley debated knocking at the door but decided to take a leaf out of her father's book and just teleported herself straight into the main room of the suite.

It was fun to watch Tesla jump out of his skin when he walked back into the room and saw her sitting on his couch playing with a knife. "Hi Nikola." She said sweetly as she continued to play with the blade, her gun clearly strapped to her leg. He stared at her for a moment and then started to look around the room. "Don't panic, I'm alone."

"How did you get here?" Nikola asked. "Did someone leave your cage door open again?"

"There's a guy who need your help." Ashley said, ignoring the insult.

"And you've obviously mistaken me for someone who gives a damn." Tesla replied. "Now if I promise to miss you will you please leave?"

"Not likely." Ashley told him. "My mom sent me to get you."

"So just because the great Helen Magnus calls I much immediately jump?" Tesla snapped.

Ashley laughed. "After the thing with the freaky bugs? Yeah you owe her."

"I paid." Tesla complained.

"You paid dad back for upsetting me and mom." Ashley reminded him. "You haven't paid mom back for her saving your sorry ass and while you generally have delusions of competence, what she needs you for is something you might actually be good at."

"I would have liked to insult you," Tesla replied. "But with your intelligence you wouldn't get offended."

"I'm blond, what's your excuse?" Ashley replied.

Tesla actually grinned. "God I hope you've never used that one around your mother."

"I'm not that stupid." Ashley replied.

"Well, perhaps you should spend less time with your father then." He suggested. "Do I have time to pack and check out or did Helen order you to kidnap me?"

"You have time but don't try to run away."

"I wasn't going to." Tesla replied, heading back into his bedroom to pack. "But there better be wine!" He shouted back.

" "

Nikola Tesla was not pleased to realise that he was working to help Torchwood, he and Jack Harkness rubbed each other the wrong way, maybe even more than he and Druitt did. However once Helen explained what she wanted from him Nikola willing threw himself into the project. It also helped that Harkness was not present, just the dead-man-walking medic he was there to help and the quiet little Japanese techie who had apparently been shot and was recovering under Helen's care.

*" * "*

Jack and Ianto returned to London with Declan and his team. Helen had agreed to loan him Ashley and Henry for a few days and he'd been able to get in touch with Martha Jones and she had flown into Cardiff a few hours earlier. With those three to support Gwen Jack felt confident that Cardiff would be safe for a few days while he check up on his injured team members. Truthfully he could have left Ianto in Cardiff as well. In fact he probably should have since only Gwen was Torchwood trained and Henry and Ashley weren't used to dealing with alien stuff. But the truth was that Jack selfishly wanted Ianto with him.

He hadn't been conscious the entire time he'd been buried. He'd died and revived a couple of dozen times but after that he hadn't regained consciousness until the Victorian Torchwood bitch had dug him up. He couple only assume that a combination of the pressure of the soil on top of him and the lack of oxygen had prevented him reviving. Either that or he had kept dying and coming back but simply never regained consciousness in between.

That didn't stop the nightmares.

He'd spent his nights with Ianto at the Welshman's flat. He hadn't been able to sleep in his own quarters at the Hub. They were too small, cramped and underground. He had been able to sleep in Ianto's bed, with his lover beside him and the curtains open so that he could see the city outside.

Ianto hadn't complained about accompanying him to London, indeed he seemed to have assumed he'd be going when Jack announce he wanted to check on Tosh and Owen in person.

Jack and Ianto followed Declan into main hall where they were met by Helen. "I thought I'd be seeing you here." She told them with a smile. "Tosh is doing much better, the gunshot wound is healing well but she's still rather weak. That said I'm having a hard time keeping her in bed and away from our computer system."

"That sounds like our Tosh." Jack said with a smile. "Can we see her?"

"Follow me." She told them, as she led them through the Sanctuary she continued. "We're also working on a way to help Owen." She explained. "Nikola Tesla has twice been able to bring back the dead as vampires, and we have the ability to remove those vampire traits."

"You think you might be able to make Owen properly alive again?" Ianto asked in surprise.

"We hope so; otherwise the radiation dose he got will eventually destroy him."

"How is John doing?" Jack asked.

Helen smiled. "He responded fine to the mediation and he's just about fully recovered. Owen isn't a danger to anyone and so far the effects of the radiation are minimal but he can't heal so it's cumulative."

"Where is he?" Ianto asked.

"In the library." Helen told them. "I think he's trying to distract himself from his own situation with our history and a few case studies." She paused outside a room. "Here's Tosh's room."

"Thank you Helen." Jack said, "I didn't get a chance to say it before but thank you, without you and your team things would have been a lot worse, we'd have lost Tosh and Owen." He hugged her and kissed her cheek.

"And I'd have lost John and possibly Ashley without you and your people, including Tosh and Owen." She told him with a smile. "So I think we're even, now go see her, she's been asking how you are and how things are back in Cardiff."

Jack nodded and pushed the door open; Tosh was sitting up in bed, an ereader in her hand. "I hope that isn't work Toshiko." Jack said. "You're supposed to be resting."

"Jack, Ianto." She greeted them with a smile. "Oh I've been so worried about you Jack, Hart said he buried you under Cardiff and we couldn't find you."

"Relax Tosh, it's okay." Jack assured her. "Torchwood found me a century early and I had them freeze me in the morgue, I was safe I promise." He carefully hugged her. "But I hear you gave us all quite a scare."

"I'm fine really but Magnus won't let me out of bed." She complained.

"Tosh you have a gunshot wound to your stomach, they nearly lost you on the operating table, and you had a building fall on you, all in one day." Jack reminded her. "I think you earned a little rest and like I said that better not be work." He pointed at her ereader.

"As strange as our job is it hasn't quite reached the level of Harry Potter yet." She said holding out the ereader so Jack and Ianto could both see what was on screen.

"Oh that's my favourite book in the series." Ianto said noting that she was reading 'The Prisoner of Azkaban'.

"Mine too." Tosh said. "Because the innocent prisoner gets away at the end, even if he doesn't get a happy ending in the series." She glanced at Jack as she said that.

"Speaking of innocent prisoners." Jack said and held out his hand to Ianto who handed over the folder that he had been carrying. "This is for you; I'm releasing you from your contract to Torchwood." He handed her the sheet of paper.

"But I have another two months left." Tosh said staring at the paper in shock.

"You've earned this Toshiko Sato and as promised here's your UNIT file." He handed her a bundle of papers. "Fully expunged, no record of your arrest or incarceration and no mention of why you came to work for Torchwood. And finally." He handed her another sheet. "Full contact details for your mother and the rest of your family."

Tosh started crying as she looked down at the sheet of paper and the address written there, along with phone numbers and email addresses. Jack had relented over the years from just postcards to full letters but they had all been sent through the Japanese Embassy since her mother had moved back to Japan just after Jack had got Tosh released into his custody. If she had wanted to Tosh could probably have found her mother's email address but she'd never wanted to betray Jack's trust and risk ending up back in that UNIT prison.

"I can go see her?"

"Whenever you want." Jack promised. "Though you'll have to get out from under Helen's care first."

"What about Torchwood?" Tosh asked suddenly. It might have started out as another cage, a kinder one maybe but still a cage, but now Torchwood felt like her home and she didn't want to give that up just because she was no longer obligated to work there. And if she left she might never see Owen again.

"It's your choice now Tosh." Jack told her gently. "If you come back then it's as a free agent with the same contact as all the others." Tosh had been the first of Jack's new team, a couple of months before he recruited Susie, so no one had ever realised that she had a much different contract to everyone else. For a fixed term of five years she was no allowed to leave Torchwood or even Cardiff unless it was on official Torchwood business or with permission from Jack and under no circumstance was she allowed to contact her family or even visit Japan where most of them lived.

"How could I go back to a normal job after everything I seen Jack?" Tosh asked with a smile.

"You could go work for UNIT." Jack suggested.

"My record has been wiped but not their memory, and they don't like us anyway." Tosh reminded him.

"I'm sure Helen would let you work for her, it would be safer in the Sanctuary than Torchwood." Jack told her.

Tosh just kept smiling. "They do more biology then technology and Henry told me that we have better toys anyway. I want to stay Jack."

Jack grinned. "Then I'll have your new contract waiting for you when you get back to Cardiff." Ianto cleared his throat and Jack amended what he had just said. "Ianto will have your new contract waiting but go visit your family first Tosh."

"If Magnus ever lets me out of here, she's worse than Owen." Tosh gave then a shaky smile. "Owen's told me what they're trying to do, I want to be here for it."

Jack squeezed her hand. "We all will be." He promised her.

There was a knock at the door and Helen stuck her head around it. "That's enough visiting for now, my patient needs rest."

"See what I mean?" Tosh said. "Worse than Owen."

"Maybe, but she is right Tosh." Jack said. "You need rest, we'll come see you later, we're sticking around for a few days."

* * *

AN: Is anyone actually reading this? Serious a one word review would be welcome, pretty please?


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

That evening Helen found Jack in James Watson's old library with a glass of brandy. "Mind I join you?" She asked.

"Be my guest." Jack said gesturing to the other chair with the hand that wasn't holding his glass.

"Where's Ianto?" She asked as she poured herself a small glass and took the seat he offered.

"Spending some quality time with you pterodactyl." Jack told her with a grin. "With everything that's happened for both our organisations he was never able to take you up on your offer to visit her before now."

"Well maybe he'll do some good there." Helen said. "She's been a little off since the incident with Big Bertha."

"Yes." Jack agreed. "That affected Myfanwy as well you know, fortunately she was in the Hub at the time but she went absolutely insane, it took Ianto forever to get her calmed down and the rest of us just hid in my office."

Helen laughed and then sobered up. "How are you Jack? I mean really, Tosh told me what happened to you, what he did to you."

Jack sighed, he could lie and make his team think he was alright, he could just about make Ianto think he was alright but Helen had known him too long to fall for any of that. "I've been better." He admitted. "I've been worse too."

"What happened Jack?"

"You know about my younger brother Gray and John Hart?" Jack asked her.

Helen nodded. "I've already talked to Ianto, he says you're not talking to anyone about what happened, not even him. He's worried for you Jack, we all are."

"John took me back in time and Gray was there, waiting for me, did you know that two thousand years ago Cardiff was a grassy field?"

"I can imagine."

"Gray was so angry at me, he was taken when we were just children, tortured for who knows how many years until the monsters that took him abandoned him in the ruins of a city they'd destroyed. He lost his mind. John found him, healed him and then was betrayed by him. Because Gray blamed me for everything."

"What did he do to you Jack?" Helen asked softly, Jack wasn't looking at her instead he was staring into the flames of the faire but Helen didn't think he was actually seeing them.

"Gray stabbed me. When I came back he'd already forced John to dig a grave. He had John bind my hands and feet, pushed me into it and buried me alive." Jack told her. "I died of suffocation, and then died again and again and again. After a while I stopped waking, up the pressure of all that soil and a lack of air I suppose. Torchwood found me in 1901, I convinced them to put me in the cryo-unit, then I woke and dealt with Gray."

"You didn't fight when he buried you, did you Jack?" Helen asked, just the way he spoke about it told her that much. "You let him do it, why?"

"Because I deserved it." Jack snapped. "Because it was my fault he was taken, my fault he suffered like that."

"How? How was any of it your fault Jack?"

"Because I let go of his hand, if I hadn't he would never have been taken." Jack told her.

"Want to explain that to me Jack?"

"My dad told me to look after Gray while he went back to look for mom." Jack explained. "I didn't, he fell while we were running across the sand and I didn't realise, I carried on running and I hid. They took him and tortured him and it was all my fault. Nothing was right after Gray was taken, my family fell apart, my parents blamed me for what happened to him, they never said anything but I could see it in their eyes whenever they looked at me. And they were right to condemn me because it was all my fault."

"Like the murders in Whitechapel were my fault Jack?" Helen asked provokingly. "Like the near destruction of my network was my fault?"

"What?" Jack was jerked out of his brooding by the ridiculousness of what Helen was saying.

"I was the one to suggest the experiment with the Source Blood, I was the one to devise the serum that altered the Five, the serum that awakened John's the ability to teleport and if I hadn't done that then the creature would never have infested him and driven him to those murders." Helen told him simply, she didn't believe it but she was trying to make a point. "I allowed Ashley to go on that mission to the Cabal base where they captured her, so it was my fault she was captured, my fault she was changed, my fault she became the Cabal's weapon."

"No it wasn't!" Jack all but shouted.

"And it wasn't your fault that Gray slipped in the sand." Helen said simply. "You were a child Jack, how old were you?"

Jack had to think for a moment. "Maybe twelve years by Earth reckoning."

"A child." Helen repeated. "A scared boy, running for his life from monsters. It wasn't your fault." She repeated. "It was bad luck, nothing more."

"Gray was tortured Helen, for years they tortured him and then left him chained up in the ruins of a city, surround by the dead and waiting to die. All because I let go!"

"Because I was curious hundred have died, probably thousands over the last hundred years." Helen reminded him. "But I didn't know that would happen, it certainly wasn't what I wanted and I tried to prevent it, tell me Jack did you ever stop thinking about him, did you ever stop looking for him?"

"I never stopped thinking about him." Jack's cheeks were damp with tears now. "I looked for him when I could, in between assignments with the Time Agency and then when I went freelance I looked for stories of the creatures that took him, looked for places they went but I was never able to find him."

Helen rose from her chair and knelt in front of Jack, she put her hand against his cheek. "You did what you could but Jack that angry man is not the little brother you remember. What he went through broke something inside him, I think the only way to survive monsters like that is to become a monster yourself. Gray died in that assault on your homeworld, the man who attacked Cardiff was not your brother."

"I just wanted to save him." Jack told her the tears running down her face.

"I know that Jack, just as you know that sometimes you can't save everyone." She said softly. "Now it's late, you should really get some sleep."

"I've slept enough Helen." He replied returning his attention to the fire.

"Then at least give me your gun." She said firmly, rising to her feet and holing out her hand.

"What?" Jack asked the randomness of her request pulling his attention back to her. "Why?"

"Because I've seen you like this before Jack." Helen told him. "Depression, guilt and alcohol do not mix well with you, and I have no desire to clean your blood off James's prized book collection." Jack said nothing but handed his gun over. "And go to bed at some point tonight, for Ianto's sake if not your own, he's worried about you Jack."

Jack sighed. "I will Helen, just not yet." Helen said nothing else but silently left the room and Jack to hopefully mull over what she had said.

Before she could consider whether she should do a little more work or seek her own bed Owen found her. "We need to talk in private." He said urgently.

Helen nodded and led her fellow doctor to the nearby Head of House's Office, knowing that it would be deserted at that time of evening and that Declan wouldn't mind her borrowing it. "What is it?" She asked him.

"Tesla and I have been going over his work and the man is a genius Magnus, completely ego centric and maybe fucked in the head but a genius none the less." Owen told her and Helen had to admit he had a point. "However we keep coming up against the same problem time and again, in every experiment Tesla used his own blood as the basis for the transformation."

"Which is unavailable since he managed to get himself de-vamped." Helen followed his reasoning. "Damn!" Then she saw the look on Owen's face. "There's something else isn't there?"

"Yes." Owen admitted. "According to Tesla what the procedure needs to work is a small amount of blood from someone who was altered by the Source Blood to express vampire traits." Owen told her. "I still have the blood samples we took from Ashley after we found her."

"They wouldn't be ideal." Helen reasoned. "Because the expression in her wasn't natural like it was in Nikola and there's the possible effects of her other Abnormal traits plus the effects of the drugs that might still be in those samples but it could still work." She looked at him. "So what's the problem?"

"No problem." Owen assured her. "But I didn't want to mention it to Tesla without your go ahead, I mean she is your daughter after all and those samples are because she went through absolute hell."

"I appreciate your concern Owen, and I'm sure Ashley would too but I'm equally sure that she'll allow you to use the blood samples if we ask her." Helen told him. "She'd want something good to come out of that nightmare."

"What about Tesla?" Owen asked. "He seems pretty keen to become a vampire again, but I doubt they'll be enough blood for both of us."

Helen nodded. "Then Nikola will just have to accept that, he became human again because of his own arrogance and stupidity I won't let him stand by and watch you die on the off chance that he could reverse that."

"Thanks Magnus." Owen said. "Could we contact Ashley? I'd still like to ask her before we use her blood." Helen nodded, pulled out her cell phone and hit the speed dial for Ashley then she asked her to join them in Declan's office.

Ashley appeared seconds after hanging up. "What's up mom?" She asked as she appeared.

"Owen would like to ask you something." Helen told her and Ashley turned her attention to the undead Doctor.

"You know that every time Tesla brought someone back he used his own vampire blood to do it." Owen began. "But the only vampire blood we have access to now is the preserved samples that we took from you just after we found you at Torchwood."

"You want to use my old blood samples to try and fix you?" Ashley asked to make sure she had the right end of the stick. Owen nodded and she turned to her mother. "Could it work?" She asked.

"We aren't sure." Helen admitted. "But since we know the remains of the original Source Blood were destroyed in Columbia it is probably our only choice."

Ashley shrugged. "Then go for it." She told him. "At least some good would have come out of that mess."

Helen smiled. "I told you she'd say that." She said to Owen then turned her attention back to Ashley. "Wold you mind taking Owen to Cardiff to retrieve the samples?" She asked. "I'm going to have a quick chat with Nikola."

"Of course mom, but how is everyone here?" Ashley asked. "Everyone back in Cardiff is worrying about them." Helen gave her daughter a quick rundown of Tosh's progress and how Jack was doing then Ashley took Owen's arm and teleported them to Cardiff.

*"*"*

When Ashley and Owen appeared back in the Hub everyone was still there but they were all preparing to go either home or to a hotel for the night. Jack had spared no expense at putting Ashley, Henry and Martha up in the nicest hotel Cardiff had to offer. "Hello." Martha greeted them. "What are you doing back here?" She added to Owen.

"Just needed to pick something up." Owen told her and disappeared in the direction of the Autopsy Bay.

"We need some blood samples that he has in storage." Ashley explained.

Martha nodded. "How's Jack doing?" She asked. "I'm worried about him."

"Everyone is." Ashley admitted. "Mom promised she'd talk to him about it and I think he's talked to Ianto as well." There was a tone of helplessness in her voice.

Martha nodded. "Ianto has helped Jack through the aftermath of torture before." She told her. "He'll make sure he's alright and your mum knows Jack pretty well too."

Ashley nodded. "She's seen him through both World Wars, you're right, mom and Ianto will help Jack."

"How is Tosh doing?" Gwen asked, she'd walked in just seconds ago, spotted Ashley and rushed over.

"Much better." Ashley assured her. "Her shoulder is just about healed and her stomach wound is getting better, she should be cleared for light duties in a week or so but I think she's planning on visiting her family first." She reported what her mom had told her just minutes earlier, this was why she'd asked, because she knew she'd be interrogated the moment she returned to Cardiff.

"That'll be nice for her." Gwen said then frowned. "I don't think I've ever known her visit family."

"She doesn't." Owen said as he re-joined them, the precious samples of Ashley's blood stowed in a cooled carrycase. "Not ever, no clue why but Tosh rarely even leaves Cardiff unless it's work related."

"What do you need blood samples for?" Martha asked having noticed what Owen was carrying.

Owen sighed, he didn't want to have to explain this to them. Ashley saved him from having to by taking over. "Mom thinks she might have a way to help Owen, but she needed samples of my blood from before they fixed me."

"Help you?" Martha asked turning her attention to Owen.

"Yeah." He told them. "Apparently been dead is not such an impediment if you hang around Helen Magnus. She didn't want to risk it before but the radiation dose I got at the power station is destroying me and like you said Martha, I can't heal. I've got nothing left to loose now, die fast or die faster."

"Magnus really thinks she can help?" Gwen asked.

Owen nodded. "It's worked before but never under these circumstances."

"Well you are pretty unique Owen." Martha reminded him. "Do you think Doctor Magnus might allow me to observe the procedure? I mean if you don't mind Owen."

"No complaints from me." Owen told her. "You've been there from the start." He looked over at Ashley who shrugged.

"I can't imagine mom minding." Ashley said. "She always likes to meet talented free thinking fellow doctors. I'll ask her when we get back." She glanced at her watch. "Which we should be doing now." She didn't point out that what Martha was at least partly after was an invite to the one of the Sanctuaries, something no one at UNIT had received any time in the last decade or so. But Ashley was sure that her mom wouldn't mind Martha since she was also a friend of Jack's.

Owen nodded and they bid the other two good night. "Once I've dropped Owen off I'm heading straight back to the hotel unless you need a lift?" She asked Martha. Henry was on Rift watch that night which meant he was staying at the Hub and was in fact already asleep in the couch.

"I'll drop you off." Gwen offered and Martha nodded so Ashley took Owen back to London and left him in the main lab, along with her mom and an unhappy looking Telsa, before she sought out her hotel room, her laptop and its downloaded movie collection.

*"*"*

Ianto waited up for a while for Jack but eventually gave in and went to sleep. It was in the early hours of the morning that Ianto was woken by a cold draft as Jack slipped into bed beside him. Ianto turned over to he was looking at Jack. "I thought you weren't coming to bed tonight."

"I considered it." Jack admitted. "But I was cold." He snuggled closer to Ianto who wrapped his arms around him. "I always feel cold now, it's cold underground Ianto, so cold."

"You're not buried Jack." Ianto promised him. "Go to sleep." He added with a kiss to his hair. "I'll keep you warm."

"We need to talk." Jack said.

"But not now." Ianto told him firmly. "You need to sleep, we'll talk tomorrow." He promised. Jack nodded and it wasn't long before both men were asleep, Jack wrapped firmly in Ianto's arms.

*"*"*

"The problem is still the power source." Tesla said looking over his notes again, he'd had Helen ask John to retrieve them a safe in his Indian villa. The request had gone via Helen because there was no way Nikola Tesla was asking John Druitt for anything. He, Helen and Owen were once again gathered in the main lab and were working on the problem of resurrecting Owen. Helen has decided that she would be able to remove most of the drugs left in the sample and Nikola thought he could work with it, which brought them to their current debate.

"Last time you needed to de-vamp someone you shorted out the power for my Sanctuary and a good portion of Old City." Helen reminded him. "So, since I think the British government might object to us hijacking the power to their capital, we need another solution."

"Yes, heaven forbid they can't make their precious cups of tea." Tesla muttered.

"Not a fan of the British government are you?" Owen asked.

"Since you asked, no I'm not, list time I worked for them my so called assistant turned out to be a Nazi." Tesla snapped. "I don't like governments."

"Unless you happened to be running it." Helen pointed out.

"Well that would be a completely different matter then wouldn't it?" Tesla said. "But that is neither here nor there, our problem is power and our distinct lack of it."

"I bet Jack has something we could use." Owen said. "If he doesn't know then Ianto might, Tea Boy has a damn well near perfect memory."

"Why Owen I think that was a compliment." Helen said with a grin.

"Well I find dying makes you really appreciate people, even if you never tell them so, and I would kill for a coffee."

Helen glanced at the clock on the wall. "It's late, hopefully Jack took my advice and went to bed."

"This really does raise the question of why you aren't also there." John asked as he walked into the room. "It's after two in the morning Helen." He chided her gently.

"You're probably right." Helen acknowledged. Since John had come back she had become much better about actually sleeping and unless there was an emergency she now had almost regular sleep patterns most of the time.

"He is right." Owen agreed. "You should all get to bed." He included Tesla in his look. "I think I'll go see this pterodactyl that Ianto was raving about, then I was half way through a book on abnormals in South America." Since he'd died Owen had become far more of a reader as he no longer had drinking, sex and sleeping to fill his nights.

John placed his hand in the small of Helen's back and she sighed. "Good night then." She told them and allowed John to lead her from the room and in the direction of her bed.

"I just want to check one or two of the equations." Tesla said turning back to his notes.

"Whatever." Owen said as he headed to the library. If Tesla wanted to stay up all night it was his choice but Owen had to admit that he was really looking forward to the idea of sleeping again, to close his eyes and just not think. Maybe he would even be able to have Toshiko bedside him. It had taken him dying and her almost dying for him to realise what he wanted was her.

Thinking of her made Owen taken a slight detour that led him to the room where Magnus was still insisting Tosh stayed. She was sleeping and the slight sound that the door made as he opened it didn't wake her. She looked peaceful, she was curled on her side, the bruises and scratches she'd received in the explosion had almost healed. She looked beautiful.

After his fiancée was killed Owen had held himself away from women, sex was on the table but he'd deliberately kept his heart locked away. Even when he was sleeping with Gwen it had been nothing more than empty lust, at least on his side. The one woman he's allowed to get even a little close to his heart had decided to fly into the Rift.

Somehow the little Asian Tech had managed to slip around all the barriers and find her way into his heart. Her shy, hesitant smile melted his heart, whether he wanted to admit it or not. After he'd been brought back she had tried to comfort him, he'd shouted at her but she still kept coming back, trying to be his friend and, he knew, wishing for more. His sarcasm, defence against anyone getting too close, didn't seem to drive her away. At least not for long.

He hoped this worked, not only because he really didn't want to die again, permanently this time. But mainly because it was the only way he would ever allow himself to be with Toshiko. She deserved as normal a life as Torchwood would allow, she deserved someone who could love her like she deserved. As long as he was dead he couldn't give her that, therefore even if he wasn't been slowly destroyed by the radiation he would have stayed away from her.

Magnus and Tesla had given him hope. If nothing else his cursed half-life would be over soon, either he'd be alive or dead but not caught between the two. He smiled slightly. "Sweet dreams Tosh."

"Owen." She whispered softly in her sleep and Owen's smile widened as he closed the door softly behind him and headed to the library. He had some reading waiting for him.

*"*"*

When Ianto woke the next morning Jack was already awake, that wasn't uncommon since Jack seemed to need less sleep than Ianto did. However Jack hadn't bothered moving from Ianto's arms, he was still laid with his back against Ianto's chest and the only reason that the Welshman know his lover was awake was that Jack was stroking his hand where it rested against his stomach.

Ianto pressed a kiss to the back of Jack's neck. "You slept the night through." He said softly, it was the first time since Gray's attack on Cardiff that Jack hadn't had at least one nightmare. The exact subject of the nightmares varied. Sometimes it was what Gray had done to him and others it was Gray killing everyone, including Ianto. There were also those that Jack refused to talk about, they worried Ianto most.

"Yeah." Jack agreed.

"Do you want to talk about now?" Ianto asked, he wouldn't push since he'd learnt that pushing Jack only pushed him to silence.

"Yeah." Jack said and he told Ianto what had happened to Gray. How he had been taken when he was a small child. How the aliens that had taken him had tortured him for years before leaving him for dead in the ruins of a dead city. How his family had fallen apart as his parents blamed Jack for Gray's loss, their censure had driven Jack to leave as soon as he could. Not just leave home but leave the entire planet by enrolling in the Time Agency.

"I never stopped looking for him Ianto, until I was trapped on Earth I was always looking for him and I never forgot him. Never."

Ianto shifted and then turned Jack so that he was facing him and could look into his eyes. "I know that Jack." He assured him.

Jack then told Ianto about what Gray had done to him, truthfully in greater detail than the Welshman would have liked. "I didn't fight because it was my penance." Jack said. "I failed Gray and I needed to be punished, he couldn't take my life so he gave me eternal torture instead. I don't know how many times I revived, I lost count, but eventually I stopped waking up, lack of air and the pressure of the dirt I think."

His head was resting on Ianto's chest and he pressed a soft kiss there. "The worst part wasn't the pain of suffocating endlessly. It was the loneliness, there was no one there and I feared there never would be. I was also terrified of what Gray might be doing to you all, especially you Ianto if he realised how I loved you. He was determined to destroy my life since he couldn't take it completely."

He sighed. "Maybe Helen is right, maybe my brother died on that beach when he was taken and that man who attacked Cardiff wasn't really Gray." Jack continued quietly. "It would have been kinder if he had died on the beach."

"Tell me about Gray?" Ianto asked. "Tell me about the little boy you remember."

Jack smiled. "He was a sweet boy, he had quite long hair for a boy, almost to his shoulders, he hated having it combed but he refused to let our mom cut it." Jack carried on telling Ianto about his brother and his childhood like he never had before. That was how Ianto learned about the hidden cave Jack had found as a child where the two boys used to hide from their chores. He told him about the ball games that they had played on the beach with their friends. And how the two boys had spent many an afternoon on the holiday days burying their father in the sand, sometimes so deeply that he couldn't get out and their mom had to dig her husband out at dinner time. Some things apparently never changed.


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

The next morning Helen relented and allowed Tosh out of bed long enough to join her team for breakfast, but that was mainly because Owen was there and would be able to monitor her welfare. But however much she complained she was not allowed to help Ianto with the cooking, and neither was Jack but that was due to his lack of cooking skills.

While Ianto cooked they talked about what had been happening in Cardiff over the past few days and what Owen and Tosh had been up to. While they ate they discussed how Helen's efforts to return Owen to life were going.

"What we need now is a power source." Owen told them. "In the past Tesla powered his devices from himself but he's not a vamp any more so that won't work."

"What type of power levels are we talking?" Jack asked. Owen pulled a sheet of paper out of his back pocket and handed it to Jack who looked it over. "I have something that should work, a ZMP."

"ZPM?" Tosh asked.

"Zero point module." Jack explained. "A nearly unlimited source of power, this one is damaged and almost drained which is why it's buried in the Archives but it should have enough power in it for a few more jolts. I'll ask Ashley or John for a ride back to Cardiff and pick it up."

"Thanks Jack." Owen told him. "I knew you'd have something we could use."

"We should get something for Magnus." Toshiko said suddenly. "She's been so helpful to us and all the Sanctuary team really risked themselves by coming to help like that, they didn't have to."

"I'm sure Helen would say she was just paying us back for helping with Ashley and John." Jack said. "But you're right, we should get her something, all of them in fact."

"And Tesla." Ianto added as he put Tosh's plate in from of her and then one in front of Jack.

Jack pulled a face. "Do we have to?"

"It would be polite." Ianto said as he set his own plate on the table and sat down next to Jack.

"I shall leave it all in your capable hands then." Jack replied with a grin.

Ianto snorted. "As if it wouldn't all be left to me anyway."

"Now that isn't true." Jack protested with a perfectly innocent expression on his face.

"I suppose not." Ianto relented. "You can probably pick out something for Ashley and maybe Magnus. I'll put everything else on the Torchwood account shall I?" Jack nodded.

*"*"*

Once they'd finished breakfast Owen insisted on escorting Tosh back to bed, even the brief excursion for breakfast had tired her out and she went without protest. Meanwhile Jack tracked John down and found him in one of the libraries working on some paperwork.

"Ah, the bane of the twenty-first century." Jack said as he walked in. "Paperwork!"

"Indeed." John said looking up from the report he was annotating. "But I though Ianto does all of yours Harkness."

"All would be an exaggeration." Jack said as he sat down in the chair opposite John.

"Most then." John corrected. "I hope he butchers the English language less than my daughter does, I must keep reminding myself that I am looking at the content of the report rather than the appalling spelling, grammar and sentence structure."

"She did pass her high school English class." Jack told him with a laugh. "I saw the report card."

"I fear she forgot most of it within hours of her final exam." John said as he put the lid back on his pen. "But you didn't come to discuss Ashley's uses and abuses of English."

"I need a quick ride back to Cardiff, I have something I need to pick up."

"Of course." John agreed. "Can you give me half an hour to finish this report? I have to call at the Old City and pick up Kate's report."

There was something in his tone of voice. "Not looking forward to reading that one?" Jack guessed.

"She has worse English than Ashley." Druitt complained.

Jack laughed. "I'll be back in half an hour then, if you don't mind leaving me in Cardiff while you head back to the Old City Sanctuary I can catch up with my people and their reports while I'm at it."

"I hope they have better writing skills." John muttered.

Jack laughed again as he rose from his seat. "They didn't, especially Owen, until Ianto started sending their reports back with lots of red pen and refused to accept it until it was corrected." As he was leaving Jack thought he heard John muttering that it might not be a bad idea, but he could have been imagining it.

*"*"*

Jack had phone ahead and so when John left him in Cardiff he just had time to grab the ZPM from the archive before joining the others who were waiting for him in the Conference room. They had all assembled reports on what had happened since he'd left and on the general reconstruction of Cardiff. When he and Ianto had left the previous morning they were still running on preliminary reports and waiting on further information. Most of that information seemed to have come in over the course of the day and the previous night because everyone was able to give him a comprehensive run down of what had happened.

Henry gave him a rundown of the tech issues in the Hub and Cardiff in such detail that Jack wasn't actually following most of it but happily accepted Henry's written report with the promise to pass it along to Tosh as soon as she was cleared for light duties.

Martha passed on the news that, although there had been some fatalities at the hospital as a result of the attack there were a lot less than there would have been without Owen and Helen helping. They had been able to get the backup generator going again not long after John and Helen had left and it had been largely due to John's input that they'd managed, his modifications weren't going to pass a PAT inspection but they worked which everyone agreed was the most important part.

Gwen's efforts at the Police headquarters had been very productive and the police were been commended for their handling of situation, Andy was even in line for a promotion and Gwen couldn't be prouder of her old partner and colleagues. She also reported that UNIT had sealed the power plant and were taking all the necessary steps to handle that problem; it should be fully secure by the end of the week.

Ashley reported that the Weevils seemed to be taking it easy and there had been no above ground sightings of them, all other alien activity was none existent and the Rift had quietened down. It had been rather unstable for the first few days after the attack, almost like it was protesting what Hart and Gray had done to it, now it had returned to a more dormant state.

Jack was pleased with how well everyone was dealing with their situations. Gwen was doing well as their leader, not that Jack had any doubts on that score, she'd covered successfully in his absence before. Martha Jack also had no doubts about, she was a former-companion to the Doctor after all, there was nothing she was going to see in Cardiff that would be worse than those adventures.

He couldn't be prouder of his god-daughter, Ashley had easily moved from her role of Abnormal hunter into the role of alien hunter. Adapting her skilling and techniques to the new challenges. And Henry looked like the small child in a sweet shop now he had the chance to play with the Torchwood systems and mainframe.

Jack closed the meeting by giving the Cardiff team a rundown of how everyone was doing in London and of the progress that had been made towards helping Owen. Then he dismissed them back to their work, conscious of the fact that Druitt would be back soon to return them bother to London.

"Jack!" Martha called after him once the meeting broke up. "How are you?" She asked him after making sure they were alone. "You told us about everyone bar yourself, which does kind of beg the question, plus mum saw the news and called, she's worried about you."

"Your mother should have had a couple more children." Jack said. "Give her someone else to fuss over, doesn't your brother have a kid?"

"Yes he does." Martha said putting her hands on her hips and looking all to like her mother Francine Jones. "Now stop changing the subject, how are you Jack?"

"Not so good but better than I was after a year at the Master's pleasure." Jack admitted. "I wasn't conscious most of the time Martha, probably not even a week but it was enough that I'm not sleeping all that well, though Ianto is doing what he can to help." He couldn't resist adding the last part with a grin.

Martha just groaned at that. "Jack!" She wasn't sure if he was just hiding his hurt behind the usual innuendo laden banter or if he really was feeling a bit better. "You said you weren't sleeping well?"

"The dark." Jack admitted. "I can't stay at the Hub at night anymore but Ianto doesn't mind my crashing at his place, he even lets me leave the curtains open without a comment about flashing the entire neighbourhood."

"You will talk to someone though, won't you Jack?" Martha pressed.

"I already have." Jack shook his head. "You do realise that you're the third person who's insisted that I talk about what happened and how I'm feeling."

"One must have been Ianto." Martha guessed. "And the second?"

"Helen." Jack admitted. "I think she was planning to make me sit down with her shrink if I refused to talk to her."

Martha hugged him. "It's good to know you've got people who will bully you into looking after yourself." She pulled back. "You're not very good at looking after yourself." She told him with a smile.

"Dad!" Was the exclamation from Ashley in the main part of the Hub that alerted them to the fact the John Druitt was back.

"Looks like my ride is here." Jack said as he turned towards the main Hub and Martha followed him. Ashley had her arms wrapped around her father while he berated her for her poor spelling and sentence structure in the report he'd just read.

"Hey, I passed English, just ask mom." She protested.

"Then I fear that standards have slipped a very long way since I was young, of course I always thought the cane was far more effective than detention." Her father said with more affection than condemnation in his voice. Then he noticed Jack. "Are you ready to leave?"

Jack held up the ZPM. "When you are." John nodded and kissed Ashley's forehead before placing his hand on Jack's arm and teleporting them back to London.

*"*"*

Back in London Jack turned the ZPM over to Helen with a quick lesson in how to connect it and then left the two doctors and Tesla to it. He didn't have a good enough grasp of what they were doing to help them and decided that the best thing he could do was get out from under their feet.

Remembering his promise to Ianto over breakfast, Jack commandeered a spare computer and started looking for thank gifts from Ashley and Helen. Ashley was easy, having known her all of her life made present buying fairly easy.

Helen was another matter entirely, what on earth do you buy the woman who has everything she wants? Or at least everything that could be bought by money alone, as much as Jack would like to give her world peace and total acceptance for Abnormals. Finally he had an idea and called Ianto for his opinion, since the Welshman didn't have a better suggestion Jack when with his.

*"*"*

Helen and Owen took time out of trying to solve his problem to check Tosh over, when the tech complained that they weren't poking Ianto as well the two doctors looked at each other. With everything that had happened they had both forgotten that the building had also fallen on him, and been Ianto he hadn't said anything.

A quick call to Martha showed that she had checked the Archivist over when she'd arrived but he and Jack had disappeared off to London before she could run a follow up exam. She'd told him to check in with Owen when he arrive.

"This is just like Ianto." Owen complained. Tosh was sitting on the bed looking rather smug with herself, if she had to suffer then so should Ianto. "He and Jack are as bad as each other about getting themselves checked out when they're injured but at least Jack is guaranteed to be 'fine', eventually." He pulled out his phone and hit the speed dial for Ianto's. "Get your sorry Welsh arse down here right now." He snapped. "Before I send someone after you." He ended the call before Ianto could reply.

Helen smiled to herself and looked over Tosh's tests a final time. "Alright Toshiko, I'm clearing you for light duties, and I do mean light. Remember you still have a healing hole in your side and the bone in your arm will take time."

"But I can go over the reports from the Hub and consult with them by phone or computer, right?" Tosh checked, as dear a friend as Henry had become she did not trust anyone with her mainframe systems, not even Jack. When Helen nodded Tosh grinned. "Can I get that in writing for Jack?"

Owen shrugged. "If he objects, shoot him." He suggested. "You can also get out of here if you want? The staff have put us up in the guest rooms on the third floor, I'm sure you can find them. Tosh nodded and slid off the bed she was sitting on. As she headed out of the room Owen shouted after her. "And if you see Ianto tell him to hurry up."

"No need." Ianto said, he walked in just as Tosh was leaving and gave her a smile as they passed. "What's up Owen?"

"An idiotic sheep-shagger who can't follow basic medical instructions." Owen informed him. "Did Martha tell you to check in with me when you got to London or did she just make that part up?"

"I'm fine Owen." Ianto protested.

Owen turned to Helen. "See what I mean? As bad as Jack and without the immortality to back it up." He turned his attention back to Ianto. "When you've been to medical school you can decide that, until then leave the diagnosis to me or I'll go play in your archives for the afternoon."

"Do and you'll be on Tesco's for life." Ianto warned him. "At least as soon as they fix your walking dead problem."

"If you boys have finished?" Helen interrupted, sometimes she alternated between amazement and out right terror that these people stood between earth and invasion. "Ianto, Martha emailed your medical report through." She'd pulled it up on her tablet while the Torchwood men had been arguing. "You had a dislocated shoulder, which Jack took care of, cracked and bruised ribs, bruising to you internal organs." She tapped the screen. "And an amazingly long list of cuts and bruises."

"Strip." Owen told him. Ianto looked from Owen to Helen and back again. "Oh don't get all modest on me, she's a doctor too and you can consider this your punishment for not doing as Martha said." Ianto sighed but started stripping off his top half. "You can leave your trousers for the moment." Owen offered.

Thanks." Ianto muttered as he shed his shirt.

Helen's attention was taken, rather unprofessionally, by the scars that marked his old wounds rather than the current injuries. Ianto had several deep burn scars, one on his stomach and several others on his forearms. He saw where she was looking. "There's more on my legs too." In informed her and turned his hands over so she could see the ones on his palms.

"I'm sorry Ianto." Helen said. "What happened?"

"No one walked away from the Tower without scars." Ianto said softly. "I was lucky."

Owen showing what for him counted as rare empathy took over. "Large parts of the building caught fire, most of Ianto's scars are from burns due to contact with heated metal." Ianto looked away, unwilling to meet anyone's eyes. "Like he said, he was lucky. Other than those and PTSD he's fine. And don't glare at me like that." He added when he saw the look Ianto gave him. "I only saw the aftermath and had nightmares, I think every single survivor had PTSD automatically added to their file."

"Well most of these look to be healing well." Helen said, having been examining Ianto's injures while Owen was talking. She took mental note of where she touched that caused Ianto to wince. "After lunch I want to run a couple of scans." She told him. "Just to check your ribs and shoulder, you can get dressed again."

Ianto reached for his shirt while Owen nodded. "That's a good idea, he had a few of those ribs broken a couple of years back when some local cannibals decided he'd make a good Sunday lunch."

"Thanks for the reminder." Ianto complained as he buttoned his shirt. Helen noticed that he seemed more relaxed once he had his shirt back on and even more so once his jacket was in place. Armour came in many forms, not all intended to stop physical injury. "Could I ask that you not mention the scars to anyone?" He asked her. "Owen is the only one of the team that knows, Martha does as well now, and Jack obviously."

"Obviously." Helen agreed. "I completely understand and as a doctor I would never reveal personal information like that."

"Thank you." Ianto told her. "Then I will see you after lunch."

Once he was gone Helen turned to Owen. "Ashley told me that Ianto had been at Canary Waif, I only saw the reports on the news and what I heard through other contacts. How bad was it?"

"I only saw the aftermath." Owen said with a shrug. "Jack took me and Susie to London with him, leaving Tosh to manage the Hub. UNIT had secured the site and they weren't happy to see us but Jack got them under control. Susie was tasked with salvaging what tech she could, to be sent back to Cardiff or up to Scotland. I mostly saw the dead."

Owen paused and ran his hand through his hair. "Christ that was enough to give me nightmares for weeks. The Daleks had just exterminated people, the cybermen had used them to make more of their own soldiers. Upgrading their bodies, but sometimes the upgrades failed. We found a room full of bodies, the cybermen had dumped them there when their upgrades failed. Bodies covered with blood and bits of metal stuck in them."

"And Ianto lived through it?"

Owen shook his head. "He came damn close to been killed or converted, I'm not sure which, his girlfriend Lisa wasn't so lucky." He left it there, let Helen think Lisa had died in the Tower, everyone on the team had sworn to take the secret of what Ianto had done to their graves, or remain silent on the subject for all eternity in Jack's case.

"How many survived?" Helen asked.

"In the end we pulled thirty three people out of the Tower alive, over four hundred bodies were recovered and the rest were missing, presumed dead." Owen sighed. "By the end of the next day six of those survivors were dead of their injuries or complications."

"Only twenty-seven survived?" Helen had seen her own Sanctuaries fall but even the final death toll there had been a lot less than the 97 percent that had died at Torchwood Tower.

"Twenty-seven survived the attack and their immediate injuries." Owen corrected. "The survivors kept in touch with each other and after some trouble with Ianto I looked them up. Four are in a mental institutions, one died of lung cancer and two others have breathing difficulties. Seven lost at least one limb and one man is now a paraplegic." He sighed. "All the survivors suffer from PTSD of varying degrees, Ianto's is pretty bad from what I can gather but he never talks about it. And as of last month there have been seven successful suicides."

"What has been done for them?" Helen asked, horrified by the total number of suicides.

"Initially very little." Owen admitted. "But after the thing with Ianto Jack looked into it further, he offered the survivors retcon it they wanted it and all but one refused, they said they needed to remember the dead. All of them now have a pension that is sufficient for them to live off comfortably, and it's for life. Ianto won't touch his."

"At least something is been done now." Helen said with a frown, not at all pleased with Jack's original handling of the situation.

"Only Ianto and four others have recovered enough to live normal lives, and two of those are missing limbs." Owen admitted. "But I'm hoping that in the next year or two a couple of the others might improve, ironically those with now have physical handicaps are doing better, mentally than those who got away with just scars."

Helen nodded. "Perhaps there is an issue with survivors guilt, those with the worst injuries might feel less guilty."

"That occurred to me too." Owen admitted. "But at this point there's not much I can do, I'm not a shrink and I can't say much about the one that the oversight committee and UNIT offered the survivors."

"What does Ianto say?" Helen asked with a frown.

"Generally as little as possible." Owen sighed. "But the fact that we are still getting suicides like that almost two years on is probably not a good sign."

"I might be able to help, between my Sanctuaries I do have several psychiatrists, not just Will, maybe some of those could help, they aren't familiar with aliens but they are with Abnormals."

Owen nodded. "It's worth considering." He agreed. "But I'd skip Ianto; I've learnt that he and Jack will not talk to me or anyone else but they will usually talk to each other."

"I'm familiar with that idea." Helen admitted. "John isn't that comfortable talking Will about many things but he will talk to me."

"If I get the chance I'll talk to Will about the Tower survivors, maybe he'll have some insight because believe me I sometimes expect to come in one morning and find out Ianto's shot himself." Owen shook his head again. "Don't tell him I said anything but sometimes I'm amazed he's still sane, though the fact that he's working for Torchwood and sleeping with Jack may indicate otherwise."

Helen laughed. "There is that." She agreed. "But I've seen a lot of survivors over the years and I think Ianto will be one of the ones who makes it. However our first job is to get you sorted out so we should go and check on Nikola, make sure he's working on your case rather than through the wine supply." She sighed. "Sometimes he forgets that it actually does affect him now." Owen laughed but followed her out.


	7. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

That evening Helen once again found Jack in James' old library but this time he wasn't alone. The two chairs that usually flanked the fireplace had been pulled together and Ianto sat on the other one. From where they were they couldn't see her and she took the opportunity to observe them.

Both men were broken, that much she knew. Owen had confided his belief that Ianto had PTSD and she was fairly certain that Jack did too, and it was debatable who's was worse. Helen thought that maybe Jack just had more experience at dealing with it.

Both had been through terrible ordeals. For Ianto it wasn't just the Tower, there had been something else, something more. Ashley had told her that Ianto had talked to her, giving her hope that she might get her father back from the creature that possessed him. He told her he'd lost his girlfriend, that there had been no hope for Lisa. Something had happened to her and based on what Owen had said, and not said, Lisa had been upgraded. Or maybe only partly? Helen might be curious but she knew that sometimes it was better to leave the past alone.

Jack she knew more about, everything he had suffered in the past and more recently had impacted him. He had lost so many that he now feared to lose anyone, demonstrated more acutely in what had happened with Owen. Jack understood that he would eventually lose everyone but that didn't mean he wanted it to happen a moment before it absolutely had to. He had no fear of death for himself or regard for his own safety but he was always worried for everyone else, in that regard he and Ianto were very much alike, caring for everyone but themselves.

Seeing them together though, Helen didn't see two broken men because they helped heal each other. Both suffered from nightmares but they soothed each other when they needed to. Ianto was good for Jack and it had been a while since Helen had seen Jack allow anyone to take care of him. Ianto she didn't know as well but she suspected that Jack was good for him as well since by his own doctor's report he was one of only five survivors to recover to the point of living 'normal' lives.

Suddenly Jack turned round. "Ah Helen, join us for a drink?"

Helen smiled. "If I wouldn't be intruding."

"Not at all." Ianto told her as he got up to get her a glass of brandy. "Jack pull up an extra chair." He ordered.

Jack glanced at Helen. "Which one of us is supposed to be the boss here?" He asked rhetorically as he pulled up the required chair next to his own.

"I think you answered your own question there Jack." Helen replied as she sat down. "Thank you Ianto." She added as she accepted the glass he handed her.

"So how are things going?" Jack asked.

"We'll be ready tomorrow afternoon." Helen told him. "I believe that you have people who want to be here?"

"Gwen and Martha." Jack told her. "Martha is also a former-Companion of the Doctor, she's worked with us before and she's been there since the start of Owen's case."

"She's also the one Jack contacted to get us to Egypt when we were chasing John." Ianto added.

"I will ask Ashley to bring them with her; she should be arriving tomorrow in time for lunch." Helen assured them, taking a sip of her drink. "I'm waiting final testing figures for the power source and the backup that we've created."

"Back up?" Jack asked with a frown.

Helen nodded. "If the ZMP you provided fails during the first critical stage then the device with switch to a backup power source and then the National Grid will not be very happy with either Torchwood or the Sanctuary Network."

"If they complain too much then I'll just remind them of that nice alien species that like to eat power lines." Jack said with a grin.

"What happened?" Ianto asked, obviously it had been before his time.

"Oh there was a series of power cuts across Cardiff because this little alien animal, about the size of a rabbit was eating the power lines." Jack explained. "And we went in a caught it, I just never told them that it died three years later, they think we still have it."

"And you'll release it if they cause trouble?" Helen smiled.

"Yes!" Jack said with a cheeky grin.

"You are so bad sometimes Jack." Helen said giving his shoulder a shove.

"Oh he is." Ianto agreed. "But we still put up with him." He added to his lover and squeezed his hand.

They talked for a while longer and then Helen suggested that they should consider going to bed at some point soon because that was what she planned to do and they wouldn't want to sleep through tomorrow's events would they?

"No mother." Jack said with a laugh.

"We'll be going to bed soon." Ianto assured her. "Because you're right and we should probably try to get as much sleep as we can while we have the chance because soon enough we'll be back in Cardiff and dealing with the Rift."

"Bed? yes." Jack agreed with a leer at Ianto. "Sleep? Maybe. Eventually"

"Jack!" Ianto protested. "Could you please leave me with some dignity at least?"

"Oh come on." Jack protested. "It's not like Helen doesn't know about the birds and the bees, or that we do it. She's the one who had a child out of wedlock, in the Victorian era no less!"

"And how many times did you get arrested for sodomy Jack?" Helen asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Not as often as I got beaten up for it?" Jack offered. "Working for Torchwood helped with the arrests; actually that was how I came to work for them."

Helen waved him off. "I've heard this one but it looks like Ianto hasn't so I'm off to bed, I'll see you both for breakfast."

"Good night Helen." Jack said.

"Good night." Ianto added and as soon as they were alone turned to Jack and raised an eyebrow.

"Pretty simple really." Jack told him. "Some drunken idiots decided I was gay, followed me out into an ally and told me in less than polite language what they thought of gay men. There was a fight and I got stabbed with a broken bottle and died." He frowned. "When I came to I was faced with the Bitches of Torchwood Three."

"Ah." Ianto said, remembering reading about them.

"Yeah, ironically they were going at it like rabbits and a man could be arrested or murdered." Jack shook his head. "Because our lovely founder didn't believe women would do that sort of thing. Which pretty much shows how much she didn't know."

Ianto laughed. "Jack were those laws passed before or after she met you?"

"I never met Queen Victoria." Jack protested.

"Really? Because you hitting on Prince Albert or one of their sons would explain a lot."

"Hey, I'm an equal opportunities kinda guy, I'd hit on her and her daughters too!"

Ianto laughed again. "You really are hopeless Jack, absolutely hopeless."

"But you love me anyway." The words were confident but there was something in the tone that made Ianto think Jack wasn't completely sure of the answer.

"But I love you anyway." Ianto assured him. "Even if you will flirt with just about everyone in the room."

"I never do more than flirt and it's always you I go home with." Jack protested.

"I know that." Ianto told him, even if he was sometimes annoyed by said flirting it was such a part of Jack that he couldn't deny it him. Hell it was pretty much how Jack said hello and the day he didn't flirt with someone was the day that Ianto would know there was something seriously wrong. "But if you come with me now you could remind me?"

"I like the way your mind works Mr Jones." Jack said with a smirk.

Ianto set his empty glass down on the table and stood up. He held out his hand to Jack. "Is that a yes?"

Jack downed the liquid left in his glass and set it on the table next to Ianto's. He then accepted Ianto's hand and allowed the Welshman to pull him to his feet but instead of releasing his hand he used it to pull Ianto into his arms and kissed him.

Ianto allowed the kiss for a while but when Jack's hands started to stray to more private areas he squirmed out of the other man's grip. "No Jack, bed first." He insisted which caused Jack to pout. "No, I mean it, anyone could walk in on us here."

"Anyone could walk in on us in the Hub." Jack pointed out as he tried to pull Ianto back into his arms.

"There's a difference between the Hub and here, this isn't our base and I am not having sex with you in your old friend's library." Ianto grabbed Jack's hand and pulled him towards the door. "The sooner we get to our room." He didn't need to finish the sentence since a very eager Jack had moved past him and was now pulling Ianto down the corridor.

*"*"*

The next morning all of the Torchwood staff at the London Sanctuary were subdued, they all knew what the afternoon would bring. Strangely enough Owen was the one acting closest to normal, he was assisting the London Sanctuary's doctor with his duties but that was mostly because he was trying to keep his mind off things and pretend everything was 'normal'.

Just before lunch Ashley teleported herself, Gwen and Martha to London leaving Henry to monitor the Rift, Martha borrowed two soldiers from UNIT that she trusted and left them with Henry in case he needed some extra pairs of hands.

They were met in the main entrance hall by the Torchwood Team, Helen, John and Declan. While Gwen greeted her team Ashley pulled Martha over to her parents. "This is Doctor Martha Jones, currently with UNIT. Martha this is my mom Doctor Helen Magnus and my father John Druitt."

"A pleasure Doctor Jones." John said with a nod of his head.

But it was Helen who was more enthusiastic. "Doctor Jones, Owen and Jack have both spoken very highly of you and I am always eager to meet enquiring young minds, especially a fellow doctor."

"It's a real honour Doctor Magnus." Martha said with a blush. "And you as well Mr Druitt." She added not wanting him to think she was ignoring him because she wasn't but she was a little shocked that the second best dressed man in the room had once been Jack the Ripper.

"Would you like to come down to the lab?" Helen offered. "You can see what we have set up for this afternoon."

"Of course I would." Martha agreed quickly then she noticed Declan still standing behind the couple. "Hello again Declan, how have you been?" They'd met a few days earlier in Cardiff, Martha had just arrived to temporarily take over as the Torchwood medic and Declan and his team were finishing up their part of the clean-up operation.

"Ready to get all these nutters out of my Sanctuary." He told her. "I hope things have been going okay in Cardiff for you?"

"Yes but I think my husband is starting to wonder if I'm ever coming home."

"Well just to warn you, Tesla is down in the lab." Declan said. "So if you'll excuse me I plan to be somewhere else." And with that he headed off in the direction of his office.

"Ah, the infamous Nikola Tesla." Martha said with a nod. "I've heard a lot about him."

"And if it came from Jack very little will have been good." John said. "If you doctors are going to the lab try and remember that lunch is in half an hour."

"We'll be up for lunch John." Helen assured him as she guided Martha in the direction of the lab.

*"*"*

The Sanctuary and Torchwood teams were finishing their lunch when John noted that Helen and Martha had not appeared. With a sigh he made them sandwiches, Ianto's coffee for Martha and tea for Helen then teleported to the lab. "So you made it to lunch I see." John commented as he appeared.

Helen, Martha, Owen and Tesla were all crowded around a bank of computer screens and they all jumped when he spoke. Helen turned and saw him. "I didn't realise it was so late." She admitted.

"This is what I mean about remembering the time." John told them as he put the sandwiches within reach. "Nikola there's food for you but if you want a drink get it yourself."

"Helen's got you quite domesticated hasn't she Johnny-boy?" Tesla asked with a smirk.

"A small price to pay to be with her." John replied, if Tesla was going to get insulting then he was more than happy to rub in the fact that Helen was with him not Tesla.

"Not now gentlemen." Helen reprimanded them and both looked down like naughty school boys, proving that Helen had both of them at least rather well trained. "Thank you for the sandwiches John." She added as she picked one up, Martha hadn't bothered waiting but Tesla waited until she had started eating before also digging in.

As the only one not eating Owen filled John in on where they were up to. "We're pretty much ready here." He told him. "All the energy reading are looking as good as we're going to get and it's not like my physical condition is going to change anytime soon, or if it does it's not going to get any better."

"I will tell you team." John told him. "Shall I have them come down in half and hour? Give the good doctors and Tesla time to eat."

"That sounds good." Owen agreed. "But can you ask Tosh to meet me in the library first? I need to talk to her."

John wasn't stupid, he knew that Owen cared for Tosh, quite possibly loved her, and that this could be the last chance they had. There was no guarantee that the machine would do what they hoped; it would either change him into a vampire, kill him or, and john had heard Owen call this the worst outcome, do nothing at all. "Immediately?"

"When she'd finished lunch." Owen corrected.

"They were finishing lunch when I came down and I believe Mr Jones was working his magic with the coffee machine again."

"Then tell her to finish her coffee first." Owen told him. "God I'm looking forward a coffee!" He shook his head. "Tell her I'll be waiting for her." John bowed slightly and teleported away. "Wish he wouldn't do that." Owen muttered to himself. He glanced towards the others and Helen nodded, indicating she'd heard. Owen nodded in return and headed towards the library.

*"*"*

The London Sanctuary library as large than the one at Magnus' Sanctuary, which Owen though was to be expected since it was the older of the two. While he'd being in London he'd passed several of his nights there, immersed in books about Abnormals and trying to take his mind off his own situation and possible future. He'd also made some notes that he'd like to compare with Helen and Jack about some reports of supposed Abnormals in the older journals that he suspected were actually aliens.

He'd also spent a fair few hours staring into space and thinking, primarily about Tosh.

She'd already being working for Torchwood when he started but she was so quiet most of the time that he'd hardly noticed she was there. Unless there was an emergency it was often hard to get her to speak much above a whisper in those early days and he was determined that one day he'd find out why. He'd asked Jack about it but the Captain had said it wasn't his place to tell, however the way Tosh acted made Owen think she'd suffered some sort of abuse at the hands of someone.

He'd meant to ask her about it sometime but in the end he never had. Now he might have only half an hour left to exist and there wasn't enough time any more. What he'd had a chance to do was watch over the four years he'd known her was watch Tosh open up and grow into a woman who, while still quiet, no longer tried to hide from people and would make sure she was heard in an argument.

After Katie he'd closed himself off from love; he'd slept with Susie and Gwen but that was about the physical not the emotional. Several hours contemplating the subject had made Owen realise that what he'd felt for Diane was lust and infatuation, and that he'd being so broken by her leaving because she'd reminded him of Katie. The Katie he had fallen in love with and planned to marry, before the alien had destroyed everything that she was and finally killed her. When Diane had left it had felt almost like losing Katie all over again, only this time by her choice. That was what had driven him into that Weevil pit.

"Owen?" He turned to see Tosh standing behind him. "Druitt said you wanted to see me?" She looked nervous, her fingers toying with the hem of her shirt and a small hesitant smile on her lips.

"I do." He gestured towards the sofa he was standing next to and then sat down next to her. Her hands were resting on her lap and Owen took both of them in his own and then a deep breath, breathing might be unnecessary for anything but speaking, still he'd found a deep breath helped steady his nerves. It was probably a psychological thing.

"Tosh, you know there's a chance that this could either not work or kill me permanently."

"Owen." Tosh tried to speak but he interrupted her.

"No it's true and we both know it, but it's not like I haven't faced this before yeah?" He tried to give her a confident smiled but knew that she'd see through it. "The thing is there so much I still want to do or say and I might not have the time anymore." He looked her in the eye. "So much to do with you.

"And like I said there isn't the time now and there might never be but I do want to explain something to you Tosh, something that I know has hurt you." Owen squeezed her hands. "You know what happened to my fiancée right?" She nodded. "Well after that I swore I wasn't going to fall in love again because all it did was hurt, I lost more and more of Katie every day until the alien finished it and killed her. I couldn't stand feeling like that again so I decided that I wouldn't fall in love again, simple as that."

"But what about Diane?" Tosh asked.

"I've realised in the last few days that Diane reminded me of the Katie I first fell in love with; strong, independent and ready to take on the world. What I felt for Diane was lust and a reflection of what I'd felt for Katie. That's all. And when Diane left into the Rift I felt like I'd lost Katie again, this time by her own choice, do you understand what I mean?"

"Yes."

Owen squeezed her hands again. "This is the part that might hurt, do you know why I slept with Gwen and Susie but not you?" He asked softly. Tosh bit her lip and looked away. "It's not what you're thinking Toshiko." He assured her. "With them it was a bit of fun, empty lust nothing more and the reason I never tried to sleep with you is because I knew it wouldn't be that with you."

Tosh looked up then and Owen saw the beginnings of hope in her eyes. He smiled at her. "I'd sworn not to fall in love again and there was no risk of that with them. Susie wasn't looking for love any more than I was. And Gwen had Rhys and her lust for Jack so there was no danger there either. But you Tosh." One of his hands let go of hers and reached up to cup her cheek. "With you there was every chance that I could fall in love again, so I kept away and tried to keep you at arm's length, using sarcasm to try and stop you falling in love with me either. But it didn't work, did it?"

Tosh shook her head.

"And by the time I realised that I'd fallen in love with you, it was too late." Tosh reached over and put her hand over the bullet hole in his chest, the one that went right through his heart. "Yeah that, when you were so determined to try and help me even though I didn't want it, that was when I realised that I liked that you were trying, that you kept trying." His free hand pulled hers away from his chest and held it.

"Even when you were screaming at me to go away because you were broken?" Confusion and hope in her voice and face.

"Even then." Owen shrugged. "I've been broken for years Tosh."

"I always wanted to help." Tosh admitted softly. "To try and make you better, but it took me years to get the courage to do anything about it. And when I finally did, you died." She had tears in her eyes. "And I thought I'd never have the chance. But then you came back and things just carried on as they always had been. I thought you just never noticed me."

Owen pulled Tosh so that she was leaning against him. Normally he tried to avoid close physical contact with people since his body was clinically dead and in his mind it was just creepy. But when Tosh started crying he knew that she needed this and she wouldn't mind that he wasn't breathing, didn't have a heartbeat and that his body was as cool as the room they were sat in.

"I always noticed you Toshiko." He whispered into her hair. "From the day I started at Torchwood. You were this quiet little technician, almost hiding behind your computers all day and I knew you'd being hurt so badly by something." He stroked her hair. "I always wanted to ask who'd hurt you that badly, then then to beat them into a bloody pulp for it."

Tosh laughed a little shakily. "It doesn't matter, Jack saved me from it."

"Yeah he told me that." Owen admitted, though Jack hadn't said 'saved' he'd said 'got her out', which made Owen all kinds of suspicious. "But he never told me what it was, I meant to ask but I couldn't see how to do it without letting you get closer to me. And the closer you got the more I risked falling for you."

Tosh pulled away and wiped her eyes. "Make it through today and I'll tell you?"

"Deal." Owen glanced at the clock on the wall and sighed. "We need to head to the lab." He stood and offered her his hand to pull her to her feet and then into his arms. Finally he couldn't resist the temptation she posed and he kissed her.

Owen knew he shouldn't do it, that there was something faintly disturbing about kissing her when he was, to all intents and purposes, dead. But if he was going into the darkness that had followed his first death then this was the memory he wanted to take with him.

Knowing that Tosh at least needed to breath he finally pulled back. Thankfully she didn't look at all disgusted at him, and she certainly hadn't objected while he was kissing her. "No mistletoe needed this time." He joked, reminding her about the Christmas he'd kissed her on the Plas because she had mistletoe, or so she said because he'd been so drunk that night that he, unfortunately, couldn't remember any of it.

She laughed, and if it sounded a little shaky and forced they both ignored that.

"I make it through this and how about that drink and game of pool?" He smiled. "Hell I'll make it dinner and a movie if you like."

"How about dinner and a show?" Tosh suggested. "Otherwise Jack might think you're stealing dating ideas from him."

"Jack Harkness dating, now there's a scary idea."

"Ianto doesn't seem to mind." Tosh told him with a smile.

"I'd rather not know what the Captain and Tea Boy get up to afterhours thank you very much." Owen protested. "And you can keep the CCTV footage that I know you have to yourself Miss Sato." He tapped the end of her nose playfully and she laughed.

They were putting off leaving and they both knew it and also knew that they couldn't put it off forever, so Owen took a small step back from Tosh and then took her hand and they left the library together.

They didn't speak on the way to the lab. They didn't have the time to say everything they wanted to but they'd already said what they needed to say.

When they reached the lab everyone else was waiting for them. Magnus, Martha and Tesla were standing with the equipment they'd prepared. Ashley and her father were standing off to one side, out of the way but still present since they both felt that they owed Owen a lot and so should be there.

Owen led Tosh over to where the rest of their team was gathered. He let go of her hand and pulled Gwen into a hug. "Be careful." He whispered to her. He knew that this might be his last chance to say goodbye. He hoped it wasn't but he was also a pessimist and believed in planning for the worst even while he wanted the best.

Gwen pulled away and nodded once, biting her lip. Owen turned his attention to Ianto, the two of them were just about as opposite as possible and during Ianto's first year at Cardiff, particularly after Lisa, Owen hadn't exactly been nice to the younger man. Hell he didn't trust anyone from One and the Cyber conversion unit in the basement seemed to prove that.

While Jack had been gone Owen had got to know the younger man better and realised that he was a decent guy. Been dead had provided Owen with far too much time to think and he realised that what Ianto had done for Lisa had been similar to what he'd done for Katie. He'd kept pushing for more tests, searching for a reason he was losing the woman he loved. Ianto had lost all his friends to One, been through a traumatic experience and then tried desperately to save the woman he loved.

If their positions had been reversed and Owen had found Katie half converted and screaming in pain he couldn't say that he wouldn't have done exactly the same thing that Ianto had. Minus the sleeping with Jack part.

To the Welshman's surprise Owen hugged him. "If the worse happens take care of Tosh, yeah?"

"You know I will." Ianto told him solemnly.

"And take care of yourself too Tea Boy." Owen added. "You look after everyone but yourself."

"I'll make sure he does." Jack put in. "Do I get a hug?"

"Not sure that's a good idea Captain." Owen remarked. "I wouldn't want you getting ideas."

"Come here." Jack didn't give him the option and pulled him into a hug.

When Owen finally managed to extract himself from Jack he turned back to Tosh. He gave her a final hug and a kiss on the forehead before gently pushing her into Ianto's arms. The Welshman kept and arm around her but moved her into the gap between him and Jack. Jack wrapped his arm around the both of them and pulled Gwen under his other arm.

Owen nodded once and then turned to Helen and Martha. "I'm ready." He told them.

"Are you sure Owen?" Martha's medical ethics required her to ask him a final time, to hear from him directly that he understood what could happen and still wanted this. "It could kill you."

"I'm sure Martha." Owen told her as he sat on the bed that they'd set up. "I'd rather it was quick than a long drawn out affair as the radiation decomposes my body." He heard a soft sob he was sure was from Tosh. "Easier for everyone I think." Now he was sure Tosh was crying though she was trying to keep it quiet.

"Alright then." Martha nodded. "Take off your shirt and lie back." She instructed as Helen prepared several injections. "We've decided to do this in two stages." Martha continued for the benefit of the rest of the room, Owen already knew the plan since he'd helped devise it. "Tesla never tried the procedure on some who'd been dead this long, though the lack of decomposition is identical to cases where it worked."

"We're combining both of my methods for producing vampires." Tesla took over. "If one doesn't work then the other should." He added with a shrug.

"If the first stage works then we're going to wait twenty-four hours before using the de-vamper to make Owen human again." Somehow she managed to avoid sniggering over the name. "That should be long enough for his body to fully heal from the injuries, radiation and any other changes that his current state has caused."

Helen stepped up to his side. "Are you ready for the injections Owen?" He nodded.

"The injections are based on what Tesla used on the teenage drug addicts that he managed to turn into vampire." Martha explained while Helen administered them. "The next part is based on the method that Tesla used to make mindless vampires from corpses."

"Wonderful." Owen muttered to himself.

"Your turn Nikola." Helen said turn to the former vampire who stepped up and placed the two prongs of the device that would deliver the electrical charge against Owen's sternum. Then he opened a sound mall vial of blood and poured it into the gunshot wound on his chest.

"Now this may sting a little." Tesla told him and flipped the switch.

* * *

AN: I'm still alive and on honour of having submitted my dissertation I present you with a new chapter! Just one more assignment to go and my degree is done! But don't worry, still a few more chapters to go in this fic and remember that reviews remind me to update!


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